Meru
Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter
Number 10 – 8 November 2001
Copyright 2001 Meru Foundation
Written by Cynthia Tenen
NEWS
It has been six busy months since our last eTORUS, in May 2001, and
Stan and I thank you for your patience. We spent six weeks in
California
this summer during June and July, making progress on several
fronts.
(See below.) We are currently in Massachusetts, and plan to
return
to California for a brief visit during December 2001.
JULY LECTURE AT CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF
INTEGRAL
STUDIES
During July, Stan taught a highly successful two-day introductory class
at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
I want to thank those subscribers to eTORUS with their own mailing
lists
who passed along our announcement. We had an unexpectedly strong
response – approximately 30 people each evening, which completely
filled
the room, during a time when most students and professors were on
vacation.
Teaching this class of well-prepared and interested students was a very
rewarding experience, and we hope to arrange another session with CIIS,
perhaps in the spring of 2002.
MERU EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH GROUP
I also want to let eTORUS readers know about an extraordinary new
collegiate
group of professionals – technical, scientific, and academic – created
during our July and August stay in California, to continue and expand
Meru's
ongoing research. Some members of the Meru Experimental Research
Group (MERG) have been on our Advisory Board for many years; others, we
met – via email – only recently. In a sense, we have been waiting
for fifteen years for this group to form, to give us working
colleagues,
taking Meru's ideas and testing them in fields beyond our own
expertise.
MERG includes web designers, technical graphics programmers, and
scholars
in linguistics, mathematics, and physics – each of whom brings skill,
their
own philosophical perspective, and a keen interest in contributing
their
talents to this work. Some of MERG's active projects include a
redesign
and modernization of the meru.org website; animations of the Meru
"First
Hand" model and other concepts Stan has storyboarded over the years;
high-level
research into the patterns of the letter-text itself, and internally,
philosophical
and technical discussions on the implications of Meru research that
help
to focus future projects. We are tremendously excited about this
group – it is very stimulating to work with others who have their own
independent
perspectives on this material, and their own reasons for investigating
it.
At present, all MERG's work is taking place in the background.
When we have results to announce – anything from a new animation, to
discoveries
about the text – I will of course announce them here in the eTORUS.
JULY FUNDRAISING LETTER -- UPDATE
Most of you received an email in July 2001 from William Haber, Meru's
CEO, about Meru's difficult financial situation, and requesting
contributions
– or sales – from eTORUS subscribers. I want to thank all those
of
you who responded. I am pleased to report some modest success –
we
were able to raise $6000 towards our goal of $10,000, to fund Meru's
operations
through the end of 2001. To help us complete that goal, I would
like
to ask any of you who were considering making a contribution to Meru
Foundation,
but who have not yet done so, to respond now if you can. Our work
depends both on continued sales of our videos and other products, and
on
the generous gifts of individuals who believe in its value. We
also
want to make contact with individuals and personally-controlled
foundations
that could offer full support for some specific projects we have in
mind,
including, for example, an Internet-based class, with active
participants
on East and West Coasts and overseas, open for viewing by anyone.
We would be pleased to discuss this and other possible projects in more
detail with persons who can help us reach appropriate funding sources –
please contact Stan and Cynthia, or Bill Haber, via email or phone, at
the addresses listed at the end of this newsletter.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
It is not possible to write any newsletter – no matter what the topic
– without acknowledging this single event that has altered our world
and
our future. There is, of course, everything to say about it – or
nothing at all that can be said. Rather than repeat the sorrow
and
anger felt by so many, I would like to offer instead our modest
response
– an informal "Architectural Proposal," ideas based on the work of the
Meru Foundation for what should stand on the World Trade Center site in
Manhattan once the destruction has been cleared away. We very
much
want to see a professionally written version of this proposal put in
front
of the people who will design the rebuilt WTC site. Written as
email
to friends within days of the tragedy, this informal outline
actually
incorporates many specific elements that people in New York have said
they
want to see. Since there's an embedded graphic, rather than send
this outline out in the eTORUS, I have placed it on the Meru website at
<www.meru.org/Newsletter/WTCProposal.html>.
If any eTORUS subscribers have contacts in the fields of civic art or
architecture,
and are inspired by this vision, please contact us as soon as
possible.
Thank you.
"CARTOON" ANIMATION OF POSSIBLE 6-BODY
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
Stan wrote the following as an email message to the Meru Experimental
Research Group, just after we returned to Massachusetts in
August.
Since it poses an interesting problem, we thought we would ask eTORUS
readers
to take a look as well. If anyone is interested in exploring this
problem, please contact us directly at <meru@meru.org>.
On our way back East, one of the ideas that [R.N., a member of MERG]
and I discussed was the possibility that the shape of the 3,10 torus
knot
Continuous Creation model was a solution to a 3-body problem in
3-space.
The idea is that the tetrahelix column consists of three masses,
rotating
around each other as they move together vertically. Then, as they
spread apart at the event horizon, they "flip" and start to rotate
around
a horizontal axis (each on a different horizontal axis, 120-degrees
apart).
So, it's a 3-body top-flipping problem. (This is the undergrad
option
grad physics course that I didn't quite master. Wouldn't you know
it. <smile> We need someone who can handle Legrangians.)
Friday, the [April 8, 2001] issue of New Scientist [magazine] showed
up with an article [by David Appel] on the many recent solutions to
several
many-body problems. This is really exciting, because all of the
solutions
shown appear to be in 2-D. Our model is in 3-D.
As I think about it, and run the simulation in my mind based on my
internal
simulation of inverse-square attraction and conservation of angular
momentum,
I think that the 3,10 knot is actually the solution to a 6-body
problem.
3 [bodies], in a triangular configuration, move up the central column,
while 3 [bodies], in a triangular configuration, move down the outer 3
loops. The system balances momentum on all axes at all
times.
It requires either an initial starting momentum if started from the
neutral
equatorial plane, or it might "breathe for itself" without additional
input
if it started with a configuration of 3 on the top event horizon, and 3
on the bottom event horizon, which would then attempt to close on each
other and set the whole system turning.
Here is a link to an 11-cell cartoon animation that I
put together to illustrate this idea:
<please
contact us at meru@meru.org for this URL>
(Windows Media .avi and Quicktime .mov versions available)
I see the whole system (in my internal cartoon space) as a
"breathing",
and somewhat like the cubeoctahedral jitterbug and the child's toy top
that's pumped by a spiral central screw.
I don't know if the physics will be trivial or brutal, but it works
in my head, anyway.
If this is correct, if we've got a 6-body problem orbit, then that
in
itself could be very helpful, because after all, this would be one way
to visualize Calabi-Yau spaces, with 6 internal dimensions.
(M-theory
/ string theory)
I hope my verbal descriptions make some sense. Comments?
Best,
Stan
The article from "New Scientist" by David Appel, mentioned above,
included
several URLS to animations of 2-D solutions to multi-body problems
discussed
in the article:
Java animations of the figure-of-eight orbit:
<www.ai.mit.edu/people/wessler/halo/rmont.html>
and
<www.ams.org/new-in-math/cover/orbits2.html>
The border collie solution and many others:
<www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/astro/galaxy/Galaxy.html>
gnuplot animations of the N-body problem:
<www.maia.ub.es/dsg/nbody.html>
FEATURES FOR THE NEXT eTORUS(tm) NEWSLETTER
When we finished this newsletter, and read it through, we realized
we had too much material! So, we're saving two features for the
next
issue:
1) A "Poetic Essay" by Stan Tenen titled "Paradise", which
describes,
in "sort-of poetry" (as he puts it), the imagery of the Model of
Continuous
Creation at <www.meru.org/continl.html>
and
2) A few book recommendations, plus one full review, for
recently-published
popular works on cosmology and mathematics.
I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation
eTORUS(tm)
Newsletter. We welcome your feedback; if you have questions, or
suggestions,
please don't hesitate to write me at:
Cynthia Tenen <meru@meru.org>
Thank you for your interest in the work of the
Meru Foundation.
The Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter is copyright
1999, 2000, 2001 Meru Foundation.
Past issues of eTORUS(tm) are archived online on the Meru Foundation
website at
<http://www.meru.org/Newsletter/journalindex.html>.
You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter, in its entirety,
as
long as you include this copyright notice and the contact information
below.
Please send comments and questions to <meru@meru.org>.
Meru Foundation research offices:
Research Director: Stan Tenen
Secretary-Treasurer:
Cynthia Tenen
PO Box 503
Sharon, MA 02067 USA
781-784-8902 Voice 781-784-2955 Fax
Email: <meru@meru.org>
Website: <http://www.meru.org>
How to order Meru Foundation Videos and Products:
Visit our secure-server website at <http://www.meetingtent.com>
OR
Fax your order to 1-509-696-8795 OR
Email: <meetingtent@yahoo.com>
To order by phone:
In the U.S., call toll-free: 1-888-422-MERU (Bill Haber, C.E.O.
Meru Foundation, in California)
Outside the U.S., call 1-925-674-8640
EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
Email: Ron Engert in Germany at <info@syntropia.de>
German readers may now also visit Ron Engert's Meru website:
<www.meru-info.de>
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