Serious Units Fables: sunlight, core frequency

Part 9 — The Rush of Sunlight

The average quantum of sunlight vibrates at a frequency about one trillion (E12) times middle D. Since middle D frequency is E5 per minute, the average frequency for sunlight is E17 per minute. And how profusely do quanta rain down on us? A square pace facing direct sunlight, receives E24 (that is 10²⁴, a trillion trillion) quanta per minute. That's a feature of being this far from the sun and would be true as well on the flock of moons just described, since they are at the same distance we are.

The amount of light on an area that size can be described by multiplying the two rates together. When you multiply the arrival rate (E24 per minute) by the average individual vibration rate (E17 per minute), the exponents add and the result is E41 per minute². Squared frequency is a way of quantifying the light as a rush of vibration: The more rapidly photons come and the faster they vibrate, the bigger this index is. Neither the arrival rate nor the average vibration rate is sufficiently descriptive by itself, but we multiply the two together and it does provide an adequate measure. It actually gives a way to predict the "wattage" or units of power in the light.

There is a hard and fast connection between light's power and the product of those two frequencies — and Planck's h-bar is the ratio connecting them. One way of writing hbar in our units is
h-bar = 10^-40 pony minute²
Try multiplying the square frequency 10⁴¹ per minute², which describes the rush of vibration in the sunlight on a square pace, by h-bar. The "per minute" cancels the "minute" and the powers of ten cancel, so that the only thing left is ten ponies—in conventional terms 3600 watts of power.

We already met the idea of full power, namely 10⁵⁰ ponies. This is the power of pushing with main force (10⁴³ oc) at top speed (10⁷ miles a minute). Such a flow of energy could bring a hundred thousand stars the size of the sun into existence with every snap of the fingers (snapping twice a second). The universe also has a core frequency which just happens to be in a round number relation to middle D on the piano. It is 10⁴⁰ times middle D, which means it is 10⁴⁵ per minute. And there is a simple relation between the universe's core frequency and its full power.

Imagine a CORE-SQUARED rush of light: for instance a swarm in which the average frequency of an individual is 10⁴⁵ per minute and 10⁴⁵ photons arrive each minute. Both the arrival rate and vibration rate are 10⁴⁵ and multiplying them gives 10⁹⁰ per minute² — a huge rush. To learn the power of this core-squared rush of light we need only multiply by h-bar. Multiplying 10^-40 pony minute² with 10⁹⁰ per minute² gives 10⁵⁰ ponies. But that is what was calculated for nature's full power! Core frequency is the unique frequency which, if you square it, describes a rush of light delivering full power.

Core frequency (in more conventional language, the Planck frequency) is the rhythm intrinsic to light and gravity, and defines the natural unit of time—the time for one event to occur when things are happening at that frequency. Core frequency is the square root of the rush that delivers full power.