Text: 137, 'the Greatest Damn Mystery in Physics' Such a relationship, implied by Laplace¹s formula, could hardly be coincidence; it would mean that they were truly synchronous, only on a much longer period than the simple 1::2::4 ratio already noted. Is there such a number n? There is indeed; and it turns out to be the highly interesting number 137, the inverse of the electronic Fine Structure Constant a. (This constant is a pure number, not exactly 1/137, but 1/137.0359722. Eddington tried to derive it from the numbers 1 and 136, used in our ³Neutrosynthesis,² but of course this was dismissed as numerology.) What is the ratio of the electronic Fine Structure Constant doing in the fine structure of the ratios of Jupiter¹s satellites? Well, we have shown above that there is only one force, the electromagnetic. Conventional astronomers claim that the only force operating between the planets is gravitation, but since we have shown that gravitation is a residual effect of electromagnetism, we can now confidently state that the only force operating between the planets is electromagnetism. Moreover, we have shown above that waves of polarization with amplitudes millions of kilometers from the gas giant planets operate to move their satellites into the normal mode nodes of those waves. No one knows where the electronic fine structure constant comes from anyhow. Feynman (1985) calls it ³the greatest damn mystery in physics.² As the Nobelist Lederman (1993) says, ³The fine structure constant. . .[a]. . .can be arrived at by taking the square of the charge of the electron divided by the speed of light times Planck¹s constant. . .this one number, 137, contains the crux of electromagnetism (the electron), relativity (the velocity of light), and quantum theory (Planck¹s constant).² He notes that Heisenberg and Pauli were obsessed by this ³137² mystery, and that Feynman suggested that all physicists should put up a sign in their homes or offices to remind them of how much we don¹t know. The sign would read simply: 137. (Lederman chose this number as his home address.) However, if ³everything is electromagnetism,² it is no more (or no less) mysterious to find the electronic fine structure constant in the fine structure of the ratios of Jupiter¹s satellites than it is to find it in the fine structure of the atom, and another indication that this unitary thesis is correct. ‹D.L. Hotson, "Dirac's Equation and the Sea of Negative Energy" (Part 2) http://www.zeitlin.net/OpenSETI/Docs/HotsonPart2.pdf

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