Deep Thinking on Capacitive and Inductive Coupling in Electrical Circuits Part 3

Newtonian Perspective and the Speed of Light

In classical Newtonian mechanics, a particle with zero mass would theoretically experience infinite acceleration under any finite force. Since inertia is proportional to mass, and mass is zero, there is no resistance to motion. Thus, a massless particle like the photon, if considered in Newtonian terms, would travel at infinite speed — because there's nothing to constrain it.

However, modern physics — specifically special relativity and quantum field theory (QFT) — tells us something very different. In these frameworks, the photon is a massless excitation of the electromagnetic field, and its speed is not infinite, but finite and precisely determined: the speed of light, \( c \).

Why the Photon Travels at \( c \) — Not Faster

In QFT, photons are constrained by the structure of the electromagnetic field. The vacuum is not empty; it has measurable properties — permittivity \( \varepsilon_0 \) and permeability \( \mu_0 \) — and these govern the speed at which electromagnetic waves propagate:

\[ c = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\varepsilon_0 \mu_0}} \]

So photons don’t travel at the speed of light because of their lack of mass — they do so because the field itself limits how fast they can move. The electromagnetic field acts as a medium with memory and structure, and the photon is a phase disturbance in that field. This dovetails with the idea in the Tugboat Theory that the vacuum itself has a form of field memory or delay, which determines how quickly field interactions can propagate.

From this viewpoint, the speed of light is not arbitrary or metaphysical. It's the maximum rate at which phase coherence can be transmitted through the field structure. Without that structure — as Newton's theory implicitly assumed — the photon would indeed move at infinite speed. But in our universe, field synchronization is the speed-limiting factor.

Conductors as Compressed Electromagnetic Field Structures

Now, consider the nature of an electrical conductor. Classically, it’s a medium that allows electric current due to mobile charge carriers. But from a field synchronization viewpoint, we can reinterpret a conductor as a compressed, structured region of the electromagnetic field:

• A conductor is a region of high field density, where electric and magnetic field lines are confined and aligned, allowing for the efficient propagation of synchronized energy.
• Instead of radiating spherically, electromagnetic energy within a conductor is channeled directionally. This is a result of field compression and confinement, much like how gravity compacts spacetime.
• Electric current is not just the movement of charge, but the propagation of field phase alignment — coherence moving through a constrained geometry.

This view allows us to think of:

• Capacitive coupling as compression of electric fields across a gap,
• Inductive coupling as compression of magnetic field loops through space,
• and conduction as a longitudinal field compression corridor — a stable path where phase synchronization can propagate linearly.

In all cases, the underlying mechanism is the same: synchronization of the electromagnetic field, constrained by geometry, material properties, and the structure of space itself.

This sets the stage for reinterpreting all classical EM behavior — not just in terms of charges and fields, but in terms of phase structure, synchronization, and field compression.

Continue reading Part 4