Spirals within Spirals within Spirals within ...

The Shape of an Atom

In the classical model of the atom known as the Bohr model, shown at the right, the atom is very similar to a solar system, with electrons orbiting around the nucleus in 'shells'. Rather than gravity holding the electron to the atom, it is held there by the electrostatic force between it and the nucleus.

In more modern physics model, the electron is more like a fuzzy cloud. But experiments have shown that the electrons seem to 'blink in and out of existence'. Thus, quantum physics tries to define the electron as more of a 'probability cloud' meaning they don't seem to know where you will find it when you look, but they can say that there is a certain probability that it will be here, and a different probability that it will be over there.

One way to interpret this is that the physical model of the orbit of an electron is sufficiently complex that they haven't been able to deduce the nature of its orbit from the available data. It may well be there all the time, not really blinking in and out of existence. Or it may be that what we call an electron only exists at the intersection of two 'waves', thus, they really do blink in and out of existence, but at the same time, not really. It's a mystery, one that some of the greatest minds are currently working on solving.

Spirals within Spirals

The other day, I was reading an interesting article about an interesting subject, and came across something that sparked my imagination. The page in question was:

http://www.OrmusMinerals.com/paranorm.htm

Here is a quote from the article:

The [smallest physical] "particles" are composed of whirls of energy which spin in opposite senses between the + and - varieties. These whirls of energy, when magnified under increasing power by yogic vision, are themselves composed of smaller spirals, and those of smaller spirals, and so on, down through 7 layers of nesting.

Here is the image that accompanies the quote:

First of all, let's see if we can't explain the concept of spirals within spirals a little more clearly. Let us represent the fundamental 'particle' as a simple sphere. To represent that particle in motion, we will use successive spheres drawn in successive locations. If we draw enough of these spheres, we get something that appears to be like a cylinder or column. To represent the direction of motion, we will use a color shift. The following images demonstrate this idea.

Now at first glance, the 'column' is the width of the particle. But on closer inspection, the particle is actually smaller, and moving with a spiral motion, making it appear larger than it is. That spiral is itself a spiral, which is itself a spiral, down to 7 levels of nesting. The following set of images illustrate this progression.

Basically, what you see here is a fractal regression. Unfortunately, the parameters used here make it difficult to really see the spirals within spirals. The size of the 'particle' and the radius of the spirals were chosen so as to create the appearance of a relatively solid, albeit bumpy, column. By varying the parameters a little, let's see if we can't make it a little easier to visualize.

With those parameters, when you go beyond the 4th level of embedded spirals, it gets difficult to see the effect even with a larger image.

Just for fun, here is the full 7-level spiral with another set of parameters.

The Shape of an Atom

From the above mentioned article, here are two additional images:

Dumbbell shape of an Atom

Gold Atom

When I saw this, a thought occurred to me. What if what they are seeing is the effect of looking at fast motion. That is, if the item they are looking at is too small and moving too fast, they will not see it at this scale. But if that item's motion brings it back frequently to the same place in space, or nearly so, then it is as though it was larger and slower, making it more visible. And what if the 'spikes' are actually the area where the orbiting electrons are leaving the center, and are becoming so sparse that they no longer see them? But within that boundary, they are present long enough and frequently enough that they can be sensed? And what if that peculiar shape were the result of that same type of motion as the fundamental particle: spirals within spirals? But rather than moving forward, it just continues to spin around it's center, creating an oblong shape with spikes?

In my mind's eye, I could see just such a thing happening. So I undertook to see if there was a particular set of parameters to the motion that would produce such a result. Here is what I came up with.

This first image shows the whole thing, the whole 'orbit' expressed as a spiral within spiral within spiral motion. Note how the inside appears more solid than the outside? Note the oblong shape, with almost 'dumbell' ends?

Hopefully this set of images will be useful to someone...

-- John