Derive Maxwell and More: Why, Plus quaternions and Hypercomplex numbers 1 of 4
2,076 views · Published 29 January 2011 · 27:36 · Indexed 18 October 2026
Channel: Doug Sweetser · 2011 · Science & Technology
Please see the "GEM Blog: GEM Unification Rescinded, Officially" video. Day 1 of the Animating New Physics project, an Independent Activities Period at MIT event done independently by The Stand-Up Physicist Doug Sweetser, class of '84. This 28 minute video covers why I do this research. There is a pop quiz to see if you have the math skills to follow the rest of the work. An explanation of quaternions and hypercomplex numbers is provided. Tell God what to say using high school math (can you factor B2 - E2?) packaged in an old and unfamiliar way known as quaternions. Applying the Euler-Lagrange equations to this Lagrangian (about as tough as a Sudoku puzzle), the Maxwell equations will be derived. The derivation will be repeated with an even less popular rule for spacetime multiplication, one with no minus signs at all, leading to field equations for gravity. Combine these two, and the result unifies gravity with the other three forces of Nature but without the Higgs. The Lagrangian and field equations all fit on a t-shirt.
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