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Newton's Bucket
Figure 11 shows a
simple experiment, conducted by Newton, which involves somewhat mysterious results.
Figure 11a is a cross section view of a bucket which contains water and is suspended by a
cord so it is free to rotate around its centerline. To prepare for the experiment the bucket
has been turned many revolutions around the centerline so the cord is twisted and exerts a
torque on the bucket. The surface of the water is flat in Fig. 11a when the bucket is
held motionless relative to Earth.
When the bucket is set in motion around its centerline so that
the twisted cord contributes to this motion, the water gradually recedes from the middle of
the bucket and rises up at the sides of the bucket creating a concave surface as shown in
Fig. 11b. Why does this occur? This question was debated in the 1700's by G. Leibniz,
L. Euler, I. Kant, and others. In the 1880's Ernst Mach wrote as follows.
Newton's experiment with the rotating vessel of water simply informs us, that the relative
rotation of the water with respect to the sides of the vessel produces no noticeable
centrifugal forces, but that such forces are produced by its relative motion with
respect to the mass of the Earth and the other celestial bodies. |
In the quantum medium view, the concave surface of the water is
the result of the acceleration of the water in the quantum medium, and it does not
depend on the mass of "other celestial bodies." As described in connection with Fig. 8,
the acceleration of a laboratory creates an imbalance in the energy being exchanged between
and within atoms. The acceleration results in an asymmetry of the Doppler shifting of the
wave/particle carriers of energy in the lab. Atoms and their constituents are absorbing more
energy coming from the direction of acceleration and less energy coming from the opposite
direction. The result is a net force on the atoms in the direction opposite to the direction
of the acceleration.
Similarly, in Fig. 11b the atoms comprising the water have an
acceleration toward the centerline of the bucket (regardless of the centerline's constant
velocity through the qm), and this acceleration results in net forces on the atoms away from
the centerline. The acceleration of the water is maximum at the walls of the bucket and zero
at the centerline, resulting in a corresponding gradient of the acceleration forces on the
atoms. It is logical that these forces should cause the water to move away from the centerline
and create a concave surface so that the forces are offset by equal and opposite forces due
to a gradient of water pressure due to the gradient of water depth.
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