When Easton resident Willie Johnson Jr. looks at the building blocks of atoms, he looks for simplicity and predictability.
The former chemist at Rutgers University has published a book on his theory that analyzes atoms using advanced algebra rather than quantum physics.
Johnson said he always had concerns about the explanations offered by the standard model of physics for why particles inside an atom interact the way they do. In quantum mechanics, Johnson said, “stuff just happens.”
Protons, the positively-charged particles at the center of an atom, ought to fly apart the same way the positive ends of two magnets will repulse each other. Quantum physics holds that strong force, a somewhat mysterious property, keeps atoms from flying into bits.
That explanation is inadequate for Johnson.
“Nobody’s explained satisfactorily why that is,” Johnson said. “It’s just the way it is.”
Johnson wonders if there’s a much simpler mathematical explanation: maybe when protons are arranged in certain directions, the way they interact changes.
“If you take moving charged particles and interact them at right angles, it’s possible they won’t repulse,” Johnson said.
It would explain many of the confusing aspects of quantum physics, Johnson said.
The idea hasn’t caught on with his scientific peers, but no one has blasted the theory, either. He’s gotten little response except for a few humble but positive comments on physics forums.
Johnson is no stranger to science. He served as the supervisor of Rutgers University’s Inorganic Analytical Laboratory, and spent years as a research scientist for Exxon Research and Engineering. There, he specialized in metal analysis.
None of it was easy work. But none of it was quantum physics, either, which may be why he has tried to solve a problem baffling quantum physicists for years by approaching it from a different perspective.
“Mathematical languages really are languages,” Johnson said. “I think in algebra, so I think a different way” than those working with advanced calculus or other forms of math, he said.