Metaphysical Treatise on Matter, Space, and Inquiry
THE START
"Matter is inversely proportional to space."
Brett A. York, 27th June 1995.
The Universe Through a Pragmatic Lens
Toward a Metaphysical Treatise on Matter, Space, and Inquiry
By Brett Anthony York
Preamble
The author comes from an engineering background in the design and construction of modern luxury and commercial ships. Throughout his formal education and professional development, he became increasingly aware of the limitations of conventional scientific understanding, which deepened his appreciation for practical solutions to everyday challenges.
This perspective fostered a personal interest in exploring the possibilities of alternative energy sources. In turn, that interest developed into a broader passion for examining and expanding upon many of the accepted physical theories and hypotheses within the human knowledge base.
As an engineer, he recognises that responsibility for safety and assurance depends on applying the known properties of materials and adopting conservative design solutions to address concerns about performance and reliability. While materials in their elementary forms are well documented and broadly understood, it is the questions that arise when inconsistencies appear that continue to inspire his curiosity and enthusiasm to one day contribute to the valuable work already recorded and recognised by the scientific community.
Every inquiry begins somewhere. For the author, that beginning came more than thirty years ago, sparked by a light-bulb moment in which clarity emerged from confusion. From that point onward, he began a journey into the mysteries surrounding everyday existence, reaching toward a way of defining the universe in terms that might seem reasonable to the average observer.
Without any formal study in cosmology, that early moment of insight nonetheless set the stage for a theoretical comparative study of what is known versus what remains uncertain or inconclusive.
Metaphysical Treatise
The Start (to my journey)
"Matter is inversely proportional to space."©
Brett York, 27th June 1995
"Matter is inversely proportional to space" is presented here not as a formal law of physics, but as a metaphysical proposition intended to stimulate inquiry. Its simplest reading is this: where matter is present, empty space is absent; where empty space is present, matter is absent. In this sense, matter and space are treated not as mathematically inverse quantities, but as contrasting criteria by which the universe may be considered in terms of presence and absence, something and nothing.
Within this treatise, the word space may be understood as volume defined by distance, or as the dimensional extent and capacity of the universe. The word matter may be understood more broadly in terms of mass, density, substance, or energy.
From this perspective, space may be said to house matter within the extension of the universe. The claim does not conclude that matter and space vary in a fixed numerical ratio, nor that an increase in one causes a measurable decrease in the other according to formal proportional law. Rather, it distinguishes matter as one criterion and space as another when considering whether the universe is to be understood as something or nothing.
A simple analogy may be drawn from life existing within the atmosphere and the oceans. If these are considered fixed volumes, then life may be said to exist within them. In the same simplified sense, one may say: where life is, air and water are not; where air and water are, life is not. This interpretation assumes a boundary around each life form, whether flexible or rigid, such as the bark of a tree or the skin of an animal.
If matter is considered in the form of the atom1, the claim does not require the atom to be devoid of internal spatial structure. Rather, matter may be treated as bounded by its effective physical or energetic extent. Likewise, this treatise includes energy within the broader idea of material presence, while recognising that such usage is conceptual rather than a restatement of formal physical theory.
The claim also considers energy to be included as matter. Fundamental to this interpretation is that light is energy, and light is described in modern physics as Electromagnetic Radiation3, or EMR. Further Electromagnetic Radiation can identify as emitting from the sun or a star measurable in the form of wavelength.
Electromagnetic radiation wavelength is the distance between two identical points on a wave, such as peak to peak or trough to trough2.
For electromagnetic waves, wavelength is usually written as λand is related to frequency by:
c=λf
where:
c= speed of light
λ= wavelength
f= frequency
This means:
long wavelength -> low frequency
short wavelength -> high frequency
Examples across the electromagnetic spectrum include:
Radio waves: very long wavelengths
Microwaves
Infrared
Visible light
Ultraviolet
X-rays
Gamma rays: very short wavelengths
Visible light has wavelengths of roughly 400 to 700 nanometres, with violet at the shorter end and red at the longer end.
A useful way to think about wavelength is that it tells you how spread out the wave is in space.
Historical related concepts
Descartes identifies matter with extension: material substance is, in essence, extended substance. Matter and spatial extension are therefore inseparable, rather than opposed as inverses.
Newton does not construe matter as the inverse of space. His account of matter is framed in terms of mass, density, quantity, and gravitational interaction. The relevant inverse relation in Newtonian physics is the inverse-square relation between gravitational force and distance, not any metaphysical opposition between matter and extension.
Euler examines the relation between quantity of matter, volume, compressibility, and density. His framework allows that a fixed quantity of matter may occupy different volumes under different conditions, such that contraction of volume corresponds to increased density.
Summary
On this reading of York's Metaphysical Treatise, matter and spatial extension are conceived as being in tension: as extension contracts, matter becomes more concentrated or intense. In physical terms, for a fixed quantity of matter, occupied space varies inversely with density. In philosophical terms, one might say that matter intensifies as spatial extension diminishes.
References Sources Consulted
1. Google Search, search term: "atom."
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Atom," Britannica, URL.
3. NASA, "Electromagnetic Spectrum," NASA Science, URL.
4. Royal Society Publishing, article title, URL.
5. Wikisource. en.wikisource.org.