Teds" 7 Natural Laws of Universal Mechanics

[T. Erdelyi]

Sometimes when I'm bored I tend to think too much and when I do, especially considerin' what I used to do for a livin'.

As a Mechanic/Millwright I've pondered these thoughts for my entire career and it wasn't till a guy showed me how to use copper rods to divine and find underground water lines and electrical conduits buried in the ground or under concrete.

He told me as he handed me two copper rods he bent for me, that everyone is receptive to the natural harmonics and frequencies that the earth emits, it's just some people are more receptive and can read the signals better.

I was skeptical to say the least, I even asked the guy if he really believed this divinin' stuff?

He pointed to an entire construction crew waitin' with all their excavators and all sorts of heavy equipment and said, "See all them guys sittin' around gettin' paid for doin' nothin/".

I said yeah, how do I get a job like that?

He told me they were all waitin' for him to mark out the path of several water, waste and electrial/phone lines buried in the big field.

Apparently the drawings that showed where the lines were buried had long been lost when the new county building was built and they moved the files.

Now back to my involvment in all this, the man handed me the two bent copper rods and showed me how to hold 'em, how to let them rotate freely, then showed me how to work 'em.

First they have to float freely in your hands with no influence from you as to how they act, youll know ya got it right when you can have the rods point straight out in front of you like your pointin' at somethin'.

Now as they're just hangin' there ya start walkin' in a grid like pattern, it's easier to keep track of your progress that way.

So I asked him what's supposed to happen, and he said, "see all those flags and paint marks on the groud?" I nodded my confused head, "Well those are lines under ground I've already found."

Now he say's to me, "I've found the final line under ground I just haven't marked it yet, I want you to find it."

So off he sends me into the field explainin' how all of nature had a random, (for lack of a better word) aura.

He said nothin' natural is linear and how when ya lay down a piece of pipe which is an unatural linear disruption in the natural harmonics in the field, (yeah, right)

Well I started walkin and the rods start spinin' to the left, than to the right, I look back at the old man and he encourages me to take a few steps forward
and the rods start movin' again, toward each other and begin to make an X.

I look back at the old man and he motions me to back up slowly, as I did the rods start commin' back to parallel, I walk forward and they begin to cross again, he urges me on a little more and eventually the rods in a series, basically pointin' at each other.

The old man points to a rock about 75 yards away and says to me, "that's the beginnin' of the line.

He than brought me to another area and let me go, the rods waved and spun one way than the next, when all of a sudden they were beginnin' to come together again, when the finally wound up pointin' at each other the old man called my attention to another rock he'd placed earlier, the pipe I found lie directly in line with path I had found between the two rocks.

Then he gave me the two rods to keep and said I had a rare ability and I should use it to help people, he also gave me my 1st Law, more on that in a minute.

I was spooked by all this, I wound up leavin' work early, after I showed my boss where a lost drain line went out from the warehouse floor, I was shakin' from my experience.

I went home told my wife and gave her an example, this spooked her out more than me, we wound up goin' to get dinner which was supposed to be a good bar with fresh seafood.

When we got there it was filled with cowboy hat wearin' rednecks, now walkin' in with a ponytail in my hair, tie-dyed shirt and jeans.

I had a bad feeling kinda like in Charlie Daniels Un Easy Rider, they was all starin' at us, in fact a bunch uf 'em made room for us at the corner end of the bar.

We sat down and order some dinner, the guy at the bar said they haven't served food in 5 year so he asked me what did I want, turns out it was a shot and a beer joint so I ordered a 2 shots of tequila, (1 for me and 1 for my wife).

Turns out they were really nice guys, they bought us drinks for the rest of the night as I recalled my day to them, 14 shots of tequila later I was done, I needed a ride.

When I got up next morning I found a piece of paper with the words, (Nature abhors order and symmetry), my first rule.

So here they are as I've accumulated over the past 25 or so years, comment at will.

1. 1. Nothing natural in life is linear, nature abhors order and symmetry.
   2. Nature tends to lean towards equalibrium, (over time nature will seek out the path of least resistance and nothing resist less than an equal homogeny).
   3. All things random, left on their own long enough eventually develop a pattern.
   4. All naturally occuring patterns will with time achieve a random state.
   5. Nothing in the Universe is naturally static.
   6. Change is univerally inevitible.
   7. Conformity is a byproduct of function, (it's smarter to copy something that works already).
      
      So tell me what ya think, should I stop thinkin', should this be moved to W&C in anticipation of the comments to follow.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Let's keep it here.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Let's keep it here.

Thanks, I was serious when I wrote it.

 

[Phydeaux]

Ted,

One of my former neighbors showed me how to devine using two bent welding rods. Then he showed me how to do it, just like you described. Being a little skeptical, I tried finding some sprinkler lines in the lawn. It worked. Just for fun, George and I moved the rods over a case of beer....and they deflected for the beer.

I actually helped a maintenance guy find a drain line going under a parking lot where we worked.

I don't think that the rods have to be copper. George used welding rods and I have used the wire from coat hangers.

Ric

 

[Gollnick]

So here they are as I've accumulated over the past 25 or so years, comment at will.

Commenting at will as the sort of physicist and engineer that I am...

Nothing natural in life is linear, nature abhors order and symmetry.

One of the basic rules in physics is, "For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction." That is symmetry. All over in the world there is symmetry.

And as for order, well it depends on how you define this thing called "order." We sometimes define order as us imposing our ideas and designs and that doesn't always work. But God and His creation have a definite orders which always emerge... even when we fight against them.

Consider, for example, your folding knife. The assembly of all the various parts is a man-imposed order and, left to its own, it will tend to fall apart. But the organization of the atoms in the steel of the blade in to a crystal structure, a very specific order, that is an order which nature does not abhor and, in fact, tends toward.

(I'm always amused by the "New Age" crowd who will worship a piece of cut glass because it has some sort of "crystal power" when, in fact, it has no crystal structure at all and yet look down upon a lump of coal which, in fact, has a very tight crystal structure.)

Nature tends to lean towards equalibrium, (over time nature will seek out the path of least resistance and nothing resist less than an equal homogeny).

Absolutely. But isn't "equilibrium" a form of order? And isn't it often symmetric?

All things random, left on their own long enough eventually develop a pattern.

In physics, the study of this tendency is called "complexity theory." Out of what seems like total randomness can emerge great complexity.

All naturally occuring patterns will with time achieve a random state.

Physicists call this entropy.

Nothing in the Universe is naturally static.

One of the basic rules in physics is that "objects at rest tend to remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force."

Change is univerally inevitible.

We actually live in a very young universe and the energy which is that "outside force" is still very much around and so, yes, change is inevitable. Just as my three-year-old niece will not remain about three feet tall for the rest of her life, so also our young universe will not remain the same for long... well, maybe a long time from our perspective; remember, physicists sometimes talk in terms of "billions and billions of years."

Conformity is a byproduct of function, (it's smarter to copy something that works already).

And here we depart from physics and turn instead to my sainted father (as we so often do here on bf.c) who used to say, "If you're doing something different than everyone else, you're either a genius or a fool... and genius is a rare commodity."

As an engineer, I often find the truth of the words of architect Louis Sullivan, "form follows function." When the function is the same, it often follows that the form is the same. When the function is to cut something, the form often comes to resemble that of a knife. Special grooves to redirect blood splatter are just an embellishment upon a basic form.

As a designer, I eschew Sullivan and his stifling conformity. I delight in looking for a new form for an old function.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Gollnick, thanks for replyin', I always respect your opinions and will continue to do so.

I'll have to think on this awhile and respond in kind to your comments, I can agree with what you say but there's always another way to look at things.

 

[mwerner]

"Dowsing", "water witching", and various other forms of this are a remarkably popular belief. Unfortunately, one that always fails when attempted under controlled conditions.
James Randi, in his "Million Dollar Challenge", has arranged controlled tests over the years for all manner of such folks, often adjusting the parameters of the tests to the satisfaction of the person doing the "dowsing'.
No matter, they all fail; they do not achieve any better results than chance.

Here's the Skeptic's Dictionary article on the phenomenon:

http://www.skepdic.com/dowsing.html

 

[kozak6]

I... am skeptical.

What do the rules have to do with anything? How do rules 3 and 4 fit together? Do they contradict, or could they be combined in a single statement? Don't rules 1 and 3 contradict?

What exactly is meant by the natural harmonics and frequencies of the Earth? Does he mean Schumann resonances?

Also, this.
http://xkcd.com/808/

 

[Zombie Zeke]

Excellent read but I think you forgot one that goes by the wayside that a Biology Professor would expound on to no end.

In addition to opposites attracting, like likes like.

It's one that is always forgotten, more of a societal law than anything nature could come up with.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

This should be renamed Teds' unsubstantiated loosely arranged thoughts on 7 things I've thought about while under the influence of prescribed medication

I've been a walkin' contradiction my whole life, (I'm a Gemini that should explain some things)

Any scientific theories are soley my opinion and backed up by nothin' more than my own observations and conclusions, any attempt to sound scientific is purely coincidental.

 

[MikeH]

I can and will find underground water and power lines under controlled conditions, and have done so.

I have found underground power lines with bent copper rods in tests set up by a former supervisor of mine at Alabama Power Company, situations where the terrain and topography would lead you to believe that the lines were in a certain place but they were in fact somewhere else. Never failed to find the actual location.

I once used my copper rods to advise a line location service using an electronic detector that they had pinpointed the wrong location for a telephone line. They stood by their location, and an auger brought up the wire in little pieces.

There are limitations. For instance, if an old fence wire has become buried below ground, the copper wires will find it, so you have to watch for false positives. They will also react to overhead lines.

I do not believe in "divination." There has to be an underlying scientific principle at work here. But nonetheless, it works.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Oh I stand by the copper rod theory, I've done it many times myself, there's always a logical explanation for how things work in this world, some just haven't been found yet.

 

[mwerner]

A few years back, you could have e-mailed Randi for an application and stood to win the million bucks.
Alas, Randi's failing health (and large numbers of submissions by individuals who were obviously deranged) have forced the foundation to only accept challenges from individuals who have acheived some notoriety or media attention.