one octave, the whole light of ordinary sunlight.
42:5.14 ¶ The so-called ether is merely a collective name to designate a group of force and energy activities occurring in space. Ultimatons, electrons, and other mass aggregations of energy are uniform particles of matter, and in their transit through space they really proceed in direct lines. Light and all other forms of recognizable energy manifestations consist of a succession of definite energy particles which proceed in direct lines except as modified by gravity and other intervening forces. That these processions of energy particles appear as wave phenomena when subjected to certain observations is due to the resistance of the undifferentiated force blanket of all space, the hypothetical ether, and to the intergravity tension of the associated aggregations of matter. The spacing of the particle-intervals of matter, together with the initial velocity of the energy beams, establishes the undulatory appearance of many forms of energy-matter.
42:5.15 The excitation of the content of space produces a wavelike reaction to the passage of rapidly moving particles of matter, just as the passage of a ship through water initiates waves of varying amplitude and interval.
42:5.16 Primordial-force behaviour does give rise to phenomena which are in many ways analogous to your postulated ether. Space is not empty; the spheres of all space whirl and plunge on through a vast ocean of outspread force-energy; neither is the space content of an atom empty. Nevertheless there is no ether, and the very absence of this hypothetical ether enables the inhabited planet to escape falling into the sun and the encircling electron to resist falling into the nucleus.
6. ULTIMATONS, ELECTRONS, AND ATOMS
42:6.1 While the space charge of universal force is homogeneous and undifferentiated, the organization of evolved energy into matter entails the concentration of energy into discrete masses of definite dimensions and established weight — precise gravity reaction.
42:6.2 Local or linear gravity becomes fully operative with the appearance of the atomic organization of matter. Preatomic matter becomes slightly gravity responsive when activated by X ray and other similar energies, but no measurable linear-gravity pull is exerted on free, unattached, and uncharged electronic- energy particles or on unassociated ultimatons.
42:6.3 ¶ Ultimatons function by mutual attraction, responding only to the circular Paradise- gravity pull. Without linear-gravity response they are thus held in the universal space drift. Ultimatons are capable of accelerating revolutionary velocity to the point of partial antigravity behaviour, but they cannot, independent of force organizers or power directors, attain the critical escape velocity of deindividuation, return to the puissant- energy stage. In nature, ultimatons escape the status of physical existence only when participating in the terminal disruption of a cooled-off and dying sun.
42:6.4 ¶ The ultimatons, unknown on Urantia, slow down through many phases of physical activity before they attain the revolutionary-energy prerequisites to electronic organization. Ultimatons have three varieties of motion: mutual resistance to cosmic force, individual revolutions of antigravity potential, and the intraelectronic positions of the 100 mutually interassociated ultimatons.
42:6.5 Mutual attraction holds 100 ultimatons together in the constitution of the electron; and there are never more nor less than 100 ultimatons in a typical electron. The loss of one or more ultimatons destroys typical electronic identity, thus bringing into existence one of the 10 modified forms of the electron.
42:6.6 Ultimatons do not describe orbits or whirl about in circuits within the electrons, but they do spread or cluster in accordance with their axial revolutionary velocities, thus determining the differential electronic dimensions. This same ultimatonic velocity of axial revolution also determines the negative or positive reactions of the several types of electronic units. The entire segregation and grouping of electronic matter, together with the electric differentiation of negative and positive bodies of energy-matter, result from these various functions of the component ultimatonic interassociation.
42:6.7 ¶ Each atom is a trifle over 2.54?10?8 cm in diameter, while an electron weighs a little more[2] than 1/2,000th of the smallest atom, hydrogen. The positive proton, characteristic of the atomic nucleus, while it may be no larger than a negative electron, weighs from 2,000 to 3,000 times more.
42:6.8 ¶ If the mass of matter should be magnified until that of an electron equalled 3 g, then were size to be proportionately magnified, the volume of such an electron would become as large as that of the earth. If the volume of a proton — 1,800 times as heavy as an electron — should be magnified to the size of the head of a pin, then, in comparison, a pin’s head would attain a diameter equal to that of the earth’s orbit around the sun.
7. ATOMIC MATTER
42:7.1 The formation of all matter is on the order of the solar system. There is at the centre of every minute universe of energy a relatively stable, comparatively stationary, nuclear portion of material existence. This central unit is endowed with a threefold possibility of manifestation. Surrounding this energy centre there whirl, in endless profusion but in fluctuating circuits, the energy units which are faintly comparable to the planets encircling the sun of some starry group like your own solar system.
42:7.2 ¶ Within the atom the electrons revolve about the central proton with about the same comparative room the planets have as they revolve about the sun in the space of the solar system. There is the same relative distance, in comparison with actual size, between the atomic nucleus and the inner electronic circuit as exists between the inner planet, Mercury, and your sun.
42:7.3 The electronic axial revolutions and their orbital velocities about the atomic nucleus are both beyond the human imagination, not to mention the velocities of their component ultimatons. The positive particles of radium fly off into space at the rate of 16,000 km/s, while the negative particles attain a velocity approximating that of light.
42:7.4 ¶ The local universes are of decimal construction. There are just 100 distinguishable atomic materializations of space-energy in a dual universe; that is the maximum possible organization of matter in Nebadon. These 100 forms of matter consist of a regular series in which from 1 to 100 electrons revolve around a central and relatively compact nucleus. It is this orderly and dependable association of various energies that constitutes matter.
42:7.5 Not every world will show 100 recognizable elements at the surface, but they are somewhere present, have been present, or are in process of evolution. Conditions surrounding the origin and subsequent evolution of a planet determine how many of the 100 atomic types will be observable. The heavier atoms are not found on the surface of many worlds. Even on Urantia the known heavier elements manifest a tendency to fly to pieces, as is illustrated by radium behaviour.
42:7.6 Stability of the atom depends on the number of electrically inactive neutrons in the central body. Chemical behaviour is wholly dependent on the activity of the freely revolving electrons.
42:7.7 ¶ In Orvonton it has never been possible naturally to assemble over 100 orbital electrons in one atomic system. When 100 and 1 have been artificially introduced into the orbital field, the result has always been the instantaneous disruption of the central proton with the wild dispersion of the electrons and other liberated energies.
42:7.8 ¶ While atoms may contain from 1 to 100 orbital electrons, only the outer 10 electrons of the larger atoms revolve about the central nucleus as distinct and discrete bodies, intactly and compactly swinging around on precise and definite orbits. The 30 electrons nearest the centre are difficult of observation or detection as separate and organized bodies. This same comparative ratio of electronic behaviour in relation to nuclear proximity obtains in all atoms regardless of the number of electrons embraced. The nearer the nucleus, the less there is of electronic individuality. The wavelike energy extension of an electron may so spread out as to occupy the whole of the lesser atomic orbits; especially is this true of the electrons nearest the atomic
