The quantum medium view (qm view) can be understood by anyone with a knowledge of college freshman-level physics and a mind that enjoys challenges and can visualize and understand complex problems and situations.  If this sounds like you, and you treat this as a difficult challenge, you should be able to understand the qm view and see why it is a far more realistic description of nature than the previously inexplicable law of light speed, c, and theory based on this law.  You will see that the qm view predicts the same "relativistic" phenomena as special relativity and nearly the same phenomena as general relativity and that, unlike relativity theory, it does not result in contradictory observations by observers in different reference frames.  You will be aware of logical reasons why the relativistic and related phenomena occur.  (For example, the qm view shows why a clock making a round trip ages less than a clock not making the trip, and why a force is needed to change a body's velocity.)

     The qm view is simply the logical consequences of the two premises specified at the beginning of the Equations and examples page.  Presumably, you will agree that the qm view follows from these premises and that the premises are reasonable, particularly after you understand how the logical consequences of the premises explain a wide variety of important phenomena.

Although understanding the qm view does not require extensive physics education, it does require careful thought.  Some of the thinking is contrary to what you have learned. You must grasp and remember new terms.  These new terms play a crucial role in understanding the quantum medium view.  You will not be able to speed read through this website and understand it.  The quantum medium view is like a picture puzzle.  One or two pieces do not reveal much.  But when you have most of the pieces in place, you will see that together they create a view that very likely reveals a deeper understanding of a wide variety of important phenomena.  The qm view reveals previously hidden absolute phenomena occurring in the qm that are responsible for the different virtual phenomena observed in different reference frames.

A great obstacle that any new, substantially different or disruptive theory faces is hasty and often reflexive negative reaction because most people dislike ways of thinking that differ from their present way of thinking, which they believe is correct.  This is a primary reason why better ways of thinking (e.g. sun-centered-cosmos theory), which were more logical and explained phenomena that could not previously be explained, took so long to be accepted.  The qm view faces this obstacle, and the best way to overcome it is to understand how the qm view explains a wide variety of important phenomena that have not been understood.  These misunderstood phenomena include the following.

 The four-part cause of light speed, c.
 Why a round trip causes a clock to age less.
 Why a clock on a mountain runs faster than one at sea level.
 Why the thread in the Bell spaceships experiment breaks when the ships gradually accelerate.
 Why an 11-meter-long rod can be observed completely inside a 10-meter tube thru which it is moving.
 Why a planet's revolution causes an "anomalous precession" of its orbit (e.g. 43 arcsec/century for Mercury).
 Why bodies have "inertia" or resistance to changes in their velocity.
 Why bodies have an apparent "gravitational attraction."
 Why the paths of photons are bent when passing near the sun or other massive systems.
 Why bodies contain so much internal energy in accordance with e=m·c.
 Why bodies become more massive when their velocity through the qm increases.
 Why changing a body's velocity can increase its absolute mass and decrease its virtual mass, and vice versa.

Understanding these phenomena requires understanding how absolute phenomena occurring in the qm result in virtual phenomena for observers who assume light speed, c, in their different reference frames.  An understanding of only a few of these phenomena may not convince a physicist of the soundness of the qm view.  But as most of these and other related phenomena become understood, it becomes obvious that the qm view is very likely the correct explanation of the phenomena because there is no other explanation that explains them all.  And, the qm view explains the logical physical causes of the phenomena.

The primary difference between the qm view and orthodox theory involves the speed of light relative to light sources and relative to observers of the light.  You are probably accustomed to thinking that the speed of light is always the same relative to all sources and relative to all observers.  This is what we were taught, and it is the law, assumption, or postulate on which relativity theory is based.  Constant light speed, c, relative to all bodies is an observed phenomenon that cannot be explained by orthodox physics theory.  The qm view shows that light speed, c, is an illusion.  It is a complex, logical consequence of the quantum medium (qm).  This is surprising because it seems as though a qm through which light travels at a constant speed would result in observations of photons arriving with a range of direction-dependent speeds for any observer moving through the medium.  Observed light speed, c, is one of many counterintuitive, logical consequences of the qm.

The qm view is based on the premise that photons and all other quanta of energy are propagated through a qm at a constant, absolute speed, ca, when not impeded by the effects of mass/energy in the medium.  Therefore, the speed of light relative to a body (e.g. a light source or observer) depends on the body's velocity through the qm.

The following figure shows this fundamental difference in thinking between the qm view and orthodox theory.  The figure shows three reference frames in which a light source (yellow dot) and an observer of light (cyan dot) are located. The reference frame on the left is at rest in the qm.  Therefore, its absolute velocity, va, through the qm is zero.  The speed of light, cr, relative to the source and observer in this reference frame is a constant 1 ca in all directions, as shown.  This is a special case, but according to orthodox physics theory, all inertial reference frames have constant light speed like this.

Certainly, sources and observers on Earth are not at rest in the qm.  Earth's rotation and revolution around the sun constantly change the speeds of light on Earth.  The changes in light speeds have not been detectable because the speeds of energy quanta moving within all mass/energy systems on Earth also change, and this causes changes in the lengths and times specified by distance- and time-measuring apparatus (e.g. metal bars, laser ranging instruments, and atomic clocks), which always results in measuring light speed, c.

The middle reference frame is moving through the qm with an absolute velocity of va = .6 ca.  Therefore, the speeds of light in this reference frame range from a minimum of .4 ca to a maximum of 1.6 ca.  The asymmetry in the rates of energy transfer affect both distances and times in this reference frame.  For example, atomic clocks that specify the rate of time in this reference frame are slowed to .8 times their rate when at rest in the qm.  The distances between points in the coordinate system of this reference frame that are on lines parallel to va are foreshortened to .8 times their length when va = 0 ca.  The reference frame on the right has a greater range of light speeds due to its greater, va = .8 ca absolute velocity.  But, the measured speed of light in this reference frame will also be c in all directions due to its particular physical standards of distance and time.

The assumption that photons and all other energy quanta propagate with absolute velocity ca through a quantum medium may seem more complicated than simply assuming that photons always have the same speed, c, relative to all bodies regardless of the bodies' motions.  However, it permits observers in different inertial frames to agree on the locations and times of events and it avoids the need for a complex, man-made spacetime system.  It is also more logical for many reasons (e.g. the qm provides a means for photons to move from one location to another, and the oscillations in the medium are the source of the photons' energies).  The logical consequences of the qm view's light speed, ca, assumption explain a wide variety of poorly understood phenomena in addition to light speed, c (e.g. inertia and the paradoxes of relativity theory).  It permits universal standards of distance, time, and mass, which are impossible when assuming constant light speed, c.

Understanding how the qm view explains these and other phenomena takes time and it is not easy because it is different.  But the qm view also makes inertia, gravity, distance, time, and various other fundamental phenomena more understandable, which makes physics easier in addition to providing a realistic understanding of the phenomena.  Readers having only an elementary understanding of physics are advised to read the 33 short pages starting at the home page.  These pages provide information that a college physics student knows.  For readers having a solid background in physics, the recommended way to understand the qm view is to follow this path , which walks the reader through a dozen pages that, together, explain the qm view in detail.  The first page on this path includes an interactive animation that shows how all systems of mass/energy are changed when their velocities change.  Subsequent pages show the far-reaching consequences of these physical changes, including constant light speed, c, and the inertial forces within bodies due to continuous changes in their velocity (i.e. their acceleration).

Trying to understand the qm view is the first part of the challenge.  The second part involves a prize, which will be awarded for showing that the qm view is NOT an improvement in physics theory.  The prize is to encourage people to examine and compare the characteristics of the qm view with characteristics of theory based on light speed, c, and to determine which is the more scientifically sound theory.  We hope this will be an interesting part of the challenge.