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29. The fine structure constant has the measured value of 0.007,297,685,866 (27) and is thus accurate to 4 parts in 100,000,000. In the kinetic particle theory quantity
associated with the fine structure constant is 6 parts in 10,000 different from the measured value of the fine structure constant. How does the kinetic particle theory explain this difference?
The fine structure constant is the ratio of the electromagnetic force to the (strong) nuclear force. In the kinetic particle theory of physics all forces are due to repeated collisions of the basic particles making up the universe. Such forces are dependent upon the particle mass density and the square of the particle velocity. The nuclear force particle velocity is , the mean speed of the background particles. The electromagnetic force particle velocity is closely related to the speed of light c, where (and is the background root mean square speed). Thus, the ratio of the electromagnetic force to the nuclear force is approximately

While the speed of light is the electrostatic force, say of a proton, is produced by a pulsation flow of particles into the proton with a maximum velocity amplitude of followed by an oppositely directed flow from the proton with a maximum velocity amplitude of . The flow from the proton lags the flow into the proton by a small angle , see the figure.

Forces are due to the average velocity of half a cycle. If is zero the average velocity is

For non-zero the average is (see Recent Papers)
which is larger than . Now, the ratio of the electrostatic force to the nuclear force is
If the value of is
radians
So that

This value is the actual ratio of the electrostatic force to the nuclear force. this constant is also the value of the velocity of the electron in a hydrogen atom in its lowest energy state where the velocity is in units of the speed of light, i.e. . From the analysis of the orbit of the electron by balancing centrifugal force with the electrostatic force and setting the electron/proton angular momentum equal to Planck's constant to we obtain
which, of course, is the measured value of , the fine structure constant.
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