To understand and explain the novel ways in which this universe and its inhabitants behave, scientists form several scientific theories. However, some of these theories are so inconceivable that when first hearing of them, people think that they aren’t true. Many such theories have been experimentally and analytically been proven to be true and many others very convincingly explain an observation. The ever-increasing human will to uncover all the secrets that the universe holds for us provides a push to the developments towards many more such scientific theories. Here are 10 such scientific theories that seem unrealistic.
1. EXISTENCE OF WORMHOLES
To explain why gravity works, Einstein came up with the general theory of relativity and said that distortions created by the objects in spacetime cause gravity. However, if a large enough curve can be created in a spacetime, it will provide a shorter path, called wormhole, between two spots in the spacetime. In simpler words, Einstein, along with Nathan Rosen, proposed that there exist structures in the universe through which one can travel to a distant point in a different time very quickly. However, no such wormholes have been detected so far, John Wheeler’s hypothesis suggests that wormholes are very small. Thus, travelling through them needs exotic matter, a theoretical matter, to enlarge the wormhole and even then, anything passing through wormholes except the exotic matter might get destroyed. Despite this, travel through wormholes might become possible when we have the adequate technology to do so.
2. MATTER WAVES
What if I told you that you are a wave? You probably won’t believe me but it is actually true. In fact, everything you see around yourself is a wave. The story of this bizarre theory begins with Newton suggesting that light is made of particles. But Huygens said that light is a wave. Decades after Huygens’ death, Young’s double slit experiment showed light’s wave nature and Einstein’s explanation of photoelectric effect showed its particle nature, suggesting light has a dual nature. Finally, in 1924, a French physicist de Broglie proposed a hypothesis in his Ph.D. thesis stating that matter, like radiation, has dual nature, i.e., it can exist as particle as well as wave. His calculations showed that as massive an object gets, it becomes more difficult to see its wave nature. His hypothesis was experimentally proved by the Davisson-Germer experiment.
3. ATOM’S FREE SPACE
The Rutherford’s gold foil experiment proved that an atom has a lot of, in fact more than 99.9% free space. The density of every single nucleus is about 2.3 x 1017 kg/m3 which is about 1013 to 1014 times of the density of ordinary matter. It is simply because ordinary matter is made of atoms, which has a very large volume filled with no mass and almost all the mass is in the small nucleus. That might lead you to think that the wall in front of you is 99.9% free space too. True! And if you punch it, your hand should go through it. Not true! The atoms vibrate and the electrons move so rapidly that your hand can’t pass through it. To understand it, think of how you can easily pass your hands through the gap in a fan’s blades when it does not move but when it moves at a high speed, the gap becomes almost invisible and it seems like the fan has one completely circular blade and you know what will happen if you try to pass your hand through it.
4. COPENHAGEN INTERPRETATION
Physicist know a lot about quantum mechanics. However, truthfully speaking, no one knows how it works and there are a handful of interpretations in this respect. Framed by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen, the Copenhagen interpretation is one of them. In quantum mechanics, several similar experiments often lead to different results. Copenhagen Interpretation states that until measured, the properties of a quantum particle can’t be known and it exists in many states. It is when we try to observe it that it chooses one of the states. To simply understand it, assume that you left a chair in your room and you leave. Now when you aren’t observing a chair, it can be present at multiple places at the same time but as soon as you enter the room again and see the chair, the chair chooses a location, i.e., where you left it in the room and is present there. However, Schrödinger in his cat experiment showed that how this theory can’t be applied to larger objects.
5. DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY
Did you know that everything that we can observe in the universe makes only 5% of it? Yes, all the things on earth and all the other heavenly bodies in the universe is just 5% of the reality. 95% of universe is made up by dark matter and dark energy, both invisible and both being things we know very little about. Calculations have shown that the gravitational pull of the heavenly bodies isn’t enough to form galaxies in the universe and they theorised an unknown kind of matter called dark matter, that provides the necessary gravity. Dark matter can’t be seen or detected but its effect can be seen when areas containing it bend light due to gravity. To explain the faster rate of the universe’s expansion, scientists have theorised dark energy, an energy that fills up the free space and is increasing with time. Dark energy is even more untraceable than dark matter but we definitely know that these both exist.
6. THE MANY WORLDS INTERPRETATION
This is another of the several interpretations used to understand quantum physics. It was first proposed by physicist Hugh Everett and might sound more bizarre than the Copenhagen Interpretation. According to this theory, when quantum objects are observed, the universe splits into many copies, the object acquiring one state in each universe. This time, let us understand this by Schrödinger’s cat experiment. Schrödinger’s proposed a thought experiment wherein a cat was locked in a box, alongside a sealed glass breaker filled with poisonous gas and a hammer connected to a sensor and a radioactive material whose chances of decaying are 50%. If the substance decays, the hammer moves and breaks the breaker, releasing the gas and killing the cat but if there is no decay, the hammer doesn’t move and the cat lives. As long as we don’t open the box, we don’t know the fate of the cat. Now as per the many worlds theory as soon as we open the box, the universe splits into two. The cat lives in one and dies in one.
7. CORRELATION OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
Our minds have clearly understood electricity and magnetism as two very different physical phenomena and for a long time in history, people thought along the similar lines. However, the experiments carried out and the findings of by Oersted, Fleming, Lenz and Gauss seemed to discover a relation between these two. James Maxwell laid down his four famous equations that established the relation between these two in the second half of the 19th century. His equations suggested that electricity and magnetism can’t exist independently. Electricity forms magnetism and vice versa. In fact, he also gave the concept of electromagnetic waves, i.e., waves that are nothing but the fluctuations in the related electric and magnetic fields. Light, UV rays, Radio waves, microwaves etc. are all electromagnetic waves. This finding also led to number of many important inventions and the motor and electric generator are among them.
8. MASS-ENERGY EQUIVALENCE
We often hear that Einstein laid down the ‘ground-breaking’ formula of E=mc2 but why exactly is it ground-breaking? Actually, by this formula, Einstein was suggesting that mass is nothing but just another form of energy. Sounds odd, right? Before this suggestion, it was believed that in any reaction, conservation of mass and conservation of energy occurs independently. But Einstein’s equation showed that mass and energy can be converted to each other. Another hard to believe fact in Einstein’s equation was hidden in the constant c2. ‘c’ represents the speed of light which is about 3×108 m/s and that makes c2 to be about 9×1016 m2/s2, suggesting that even one gram of mass can provide a surprisingly large amount of energy or that a large amount of energy is being stored in a small stationary mass. Here, mass of any kind, unless it is in the same amount, will give same type of energy.
9. EXISTENCE OF BLACK HOLES
Almost everyone has heard of black holes. Anyone who has an interest in astrophysics has probably studied the most about black holes out of all other topics. Stars whose fuel, i.e., the hydrogen in them, ends, can no longer resist their gravitational push and all their mass squeezes into a small body of high mass, thus, high density and gravity, called a black hole. This happens with stars which are massive and thus, have high gravitation. The bizarre part starts here. Black holes have such high gravity that anything that comes near them is eventually pulled into them. Even light can’t escape a black hole. They are obviously invisible but their presence is confirmed by the behaviour of the objects between them. Light from stars have been observed to move towards and end at a particular point. What happens to a body engulfed by a black hole? We have no idea. The best we can say is that it enters into dark nothingness. Since not even light can escape a black hole, it doesn’t seem very probable that we will ever know what happens inside it.
10. TIME DILATION
Another fascinating fact that Einstein’s theory of relativity presented was that time doesn’t move at the same speed for everyone. It moves slower for faster objects. The ‘twin paradox’ is a perfect example of this. Imagine there are two twins and one of them sets off in a spaceship, which moves really fast, for a space journey. When this twin returns to the earth, he sees that his sibling’s age has grown faster than him, i.e., his sibling is now older than him. This happens due to time dilation. Since the twin who was in the space moved really fast, time for him became slow and that’s why he didn’t age quickly. In fact, the theory also suggests that if an object is able to move at the speed of light, time for it will stand still. Yes, the time will not move at all! So, if you want to grow old, stop using all anti-ageing products and try to move at the speed of light. The sad part though is that Einstein’s theory also says that it is impossible for you to do so!
