Two Kinds of Numbers

When describing light there are two sides to consider: value link and color. link I think the intertwined relationship shared by value and color can serve as a metaphor for other things in the Universe, including the number line, and that is the topic of this essay.

There are other essays on this site to talk about color and value, but I am going to do a quick review here. Colors are frequencies of light, and to make them lighter or darker, you need to add or subtract value. Values are amplitudes of light (like black, white, and gray) and represent how much light there is to make colors brighter or darker. Values are often lumped in with color, but they work in different ways. The main thing to understand for this essay is in additive color mixing, all of the colors combine into white and can be separated from white, and in subtractive color mixing the same is true for black.

[color mixing graphic]

In this way, it could be said that value is the "beginning" and "end" of color, and this talk of beginnings and ends is what leads us to the number line:

[numberline graphic]

The Diagram

You might have already noticed the diagram that goes along with this Looping Spectrum idea, but here it is again in case you missed it:

I don't have a formal name for this symbol yet, I've mostly just been calling it "the diagram." This essay is to explain how I came up with these shapes in this arrangement. 

Numbers as Concepts

The goal of this essay is to explain certain numbers as ideas or concepts, and not just a quantity. (I already brought this up a bit in The Circle and the Line: Part 1 link by relating shapes to numbers.)

In the Looping Spectrum Paradox, the numbers needed to explain everything are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. There is also 0 and infinity to consider, but let us start with the number one:

1

The number 1 represents a singularity, a single thing. In terms of geometry, it would be a single point. It is pretty hard to talk about the concept of one because if it really is just one, there is nothing else around to compare it to. You could say it is like one apple, but then what does that even mean? One apple where? In your hand? One apple in a basket? If it is just an apple, then you couldn't even be there to say that there is one apple because then there would be two things; you and the apple. This brings us to the concept of 2, which is a lot easier to comprehend.

The Circle and the Line: Part 2

In The Circle and the Line: Part 1 I wanted to show some examples of how patterns in the Observable Universe can be broken down into the fundamental pats of circles and lines. The general idea behind a binary like this is that the two parts are opposites, and if it isn't one, it is the other. But just like the opposite ends of the color spectrum can be blended and connected with magenta, circles and lines are connected as well. The focus of this essay is to show the various relationships between circles and lines.

The most famous connection between circles and lines is probably the ratio between a circle's circumference and its diameter: 3.14159 etc.... This number is known as Pi, and it is kind of a big deal. Pi could easily warrant its own essay, but I'm hoping you're already pretty familiar with it. The main thing about Pi in terms of the Looping Spectrum stuff is that if you have a circle, you can figure out its corresponding line, and vice versa. I also want to take the time to mention a lesser known ratio called Tau:

The Circle and the Line: Part 1

The reason the idea is called "Looping Spectrum" is because it seems everything in the Observable Universe can be reduced to pattern made from circles and the lines. (The circle is the loop and the line is the spectrum.)

The first thing to examine is geometry, with the goal being to find the most fundamental shape. If you associate numbers with shapes and consider shapes with fewer sides to be more fundamental than those with many sides, then squares would be more fundamental than pentagons, and triangles would be more fundamental than squares. In fact, triangles are the most fundamental polygon because all other polygons are actually just a bunch of triangles stuck together.

Color Theory: Part 2

In the first color theory essay I talked about the primary colors and how magenta is a bit different than the other colors. There is more to color than just what is going on in the rainbow though, and that brings us to the topics of this essay: value and florescence.

Value is an element of design separate from color but very closely related, similar to how shape and line are easily grouped together. Value is where we get the lightness and darkness of a color, and where we find black, white, and gray. So here is an important point: black and white are NOT colors, they are values. It is convenient for us to refer to values like black and white as colors when we are asked what color our car or shirt is, but value and color are two different things.

Color Theory: Part 1

     There are two really important lessons about color that don't seem to be common knowledge:

     1. There are TWO sets of primary colors, and red blue and yellow isn't even one of them.
     2. Magenta is a color we can see but we can not measure it physically.

     It concerns me a bit that I took a color theory class in college for my art degree and neither of these things were mentioned. It concerns me even more that across the world art teachers are telling students the primary colors are red, blue, and yellow, which turns out to be a less than accurate way to explain the color wheel. There are actually two sets of three primary colors, one for additive color and one for subtractive color.

Additive color mixing looks like this:

Status Update and Slight Name Change

     I have decided to change the name of this blog from Looping Spectrum Theory to Looping Spectrum Paradox because I feel like paradox is a more accurate word for the idea I am working with. Someday when I am able to take this to the highest levels of math and science I may call it a theory again, but for now I am working toward a rounded explanation of the things I have already sorted out.

     I plan to write a series of short essays and make a handful of videos, and then let this page simmer while I focus more on other projects. Hopefully it will gain some interest and lead to an opportunity to take it to the next level, but either way I will continue to study on my own.

Looping Spectrum Theory: Claims and Logic.

Part One: Waves and Particles.

Claim 1:

If you want to measure something, the most fundamental measurements you can make are on the binary level.

Logic:

Binaries are the most fundamental aspect of anything we can measure because it gives us the option of a frame of reference. Anything simpler than a binary would be a singularity, but in a singularity everything is homogenous and there are no frames of reference to use for measurements.

Claim 2:

The binary of the observable universe is waves and particles. In other words, everything in the observable universe is a wave, a particle, or a combination of the two.

Logic:

Another way of saying this is: everything in the Universe is energy, and we can observe it as either waves or particles. The periodic table and the standard model are how we have organized the particles, and the electromagnetic spectrum is how we have organized the waves. It is true that some things seem to be both waves and particles at the same time, but even when something is “both at the same time” it is still made of the same two ingredients: waves and particles. Another way of thinking about this is if everything in the Universe was either black or white, then something that was both black and white at the same time would be gray.  

The Short Version

On October 6th of 2012 I was struck with an idea that began this whole Looping Spectrum thing. It has now been a year, and this website shows the progression of my work since then. I am now at a point where I need to study physics professionally to keep working on the theory, but I think what I've come up with so far is pretty substantial. Hopefully I will be able to turn enough heads that it will lead to some sort of grant or special program that would allow this art teacher with a BA in Fine Art to return to school and get a degree in physics.

My most recent work is a new paper that will hopefully strike a balance between "too long for the attention span of the internet" and "too short to explain what needs to be explained." You can read it by following this link, or by simply clicking the page titled "The Short Version."

If this paper doesn't help the idea catch on, I will proceed make new, shorter videos for YouTube with better production value.

So anyway, that is currently the plan! Thank you for visiting :)

~Aaron

Value Wheel and Color Wheel

Gravity as the Magenta Summary

Looping Spectrum Intro Playlist

I made 5 more videos to help explain the theory, and I put them all in this playlist:

Some Infographics

Here are some more summary graphics I made to help explain this idea!

Video Explanation

I made a video to explain Looping Spectrum Theory; it's probably easier to understand it as a video instead of text.

Awesome Math Songs

These are two songs that do a great job of touching on the topics of math, circles, and fractals in a fun and clever way. Basically, I really love these songs.


Mandelbrot Set, by Jonathan Coulton


 
Pi, by Hard 'n Phirm

Things I think about

Here are some things that have an influence on the way I think:

Richard Feynman talks about light and vision

Steve Mould talks about color mixing and magenta.

Minute Physics E=mc2 is Incomplete.

Pi Day!

Happy Pi day folks! I posted the theory, you can find it in the bar at the top of the page. At this point it is a first draft, and probably still has a bunch of typos and other minor issues, but I'll fix those later. Thanks for stopping by!

Summary Graphic

This is an image I made that summarizes the big points of the theory:

Looping Spectrum Theory as a philosophy, numerical concepts,1st draft.

Writing out the Looping Spectrum Theory as a philosophy might help some people digest it better, and I think it holds just as much weight as a general way of thought as it does as a theory for the entire Universe.

The Looping Spectrum Theory is essentially founded on the study of singularities and binaries, seeing how small parts make the bigger picture, and finding the connections between seemingly unrelated things. These attributes make it useful as a general philosophy in addition to being a candidate for a Theory of Everything. So here it is: Looping Spectrum Theory explained as Looping Spectrum Philosophy.

I'll explain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 as concepts, starting with number 1.