Spatial Extension
 Discoidea, Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur. Chromolithograph 32 x 40 cm, Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig 1899-1904. Photograph by D Dunlop.

Let some particle P be described by its mechanical energy $E$ and spin $\sigma$. Definition: the orbital radius of P is the number

\begin{align} R \equiv \frac{hc}{2 \pi } \frac{ \sqrt{\sigma }}{E} \end{align}

where $h$, $c$ and $\pi$ are constants. Since $E$ and $\sigma$ have been defined from tallies of quarks, the orbital radius is thus established from quark counts too. But now we use it to make a rudimentary account of the expanse or extent of P.

Any non-rotating particle has an orbital radius of zero.

For photons the spin is always one. And the wavelength $\lambda$ is related to the energy by $\lambda = h c / E$. So the orbital radius of a photon can be written as

\begin{align} R \left( \gamma \right) = \frac{ \lambda }{ 2 \pi } \end{align}

Then a circular perimeter of $2 \pi R$ is the same as one wavelength.

 Next step: spatial axes.
page revision: 131, last edited: 25 May 2018 10:00