Musa D Abdullahi
Musa D. Abdullahi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 19, 1941 Katsina, Nigeria |
| Residence | Abuja, FCT, Nigeria |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester, Ahmadu Bello University |
| Known for | Electromagnetism, Electrodynamics, Gravitation, Relativity, radiative electrodynamics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrical engineering, Physics |
| Institutions | Ahmadu Bello University, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Umaru Musa Yar'adua University, Katsina |
Musa Daji Abdullahi (born 19 July 1941) is a Nigerian electrical engineer and independent researcher known for his work on an alternative electrodynamics in which a charged particle is accelerated by an electric field to the speed of light with constant mass. His research interests span electromagnetic fields and radiation, electrodynamics, special and general relativity, gravitation and ether theory. His ideas lie outside the mainstream of modern physics.
Biography
Abdullahi was born in Katsina, Nigeria, in 1941. He attended primary school in Katsina from 1948 to 1954 and Barewa College, Zaria, from 1954 to 1959. He studied at the University of Manchester, England, from 1961 to 1965, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1965. He later earned a Master's degree in electronics and telecommunications from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1968, and is described as the first person to take a postgraduate degree in electronics and telecommunications at that university.
Abdullahi entered the Nigerian Public Service in 1965, holding a number of teaching and administrative posts. He retired in August 2000 as Director of Engineering Services in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. He subsequently taught at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and served on contract appointment as a senior lecturer in telecommunications engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Minna. He later worked as an independent researcher and adjunct lecturer in the Department of Physics at Umaru Musa Yar'adua University, Katsina.
He is a member of the John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society, and has been a prolific contributor of papers to open-access and independent online journals, including the General Science Journal and the IOSR Journal of Applied Physics. He has also spoken at international physics conferences.
Scientific contributions
Radiative electrodynamics
Abdullahi is an independent researcher who has developed what he terms an alternative or "radiative" electrodynamics. In this framework, a charged particle such as an electron can be accelerated by an electric field to the speed of light as a limiting value while retaining a constant mass, accompanied by the emission of radiation. This stands in contrast to the theory of special relativity, in which a particle's mass is held to increase without bound as its speed approaches that of light.
In Abdullahi's model, it is not the mass of the particle that changes with speed, but the accelerating force acting on the charged particle, which he proposes falls to zero as the particle reaches the speed of light. He expresses the accelerating force on an electron as F = eE(c − v)/c = m(dv/dt), where m is a constant mass and c is the speed of light. The difference between this force and the force on a stationary electron is interpreted as a radiation-reaction force, against which the work done appears as emitted radiation. He has argued that at low speeds his formulation and relativistic electrodynamics both reduce to classical electrodynamics, but that they diverge at speeds close to that of light — and in particular that the two theories agree for accelerated electrons but disagree for decelerated ones, which he regards as an experimentally decidable difference.
A velocity factor in Coulomb's law
The physical basis Abdullahi gives for the velocity-dependent force is the finite propagation speed of the electric force and the consequent aberration of the electric field of a moving charge. Because the field is propagated at the velocity of light, he argues, a particle moving through it does not experience the same force as one at rest: the force acquires a factor depending on the particle's velocity and its direction relative to the field. On this view Coulomb's law of electrostatics, modified by such a velocity factor, together with Newton's second law of motion, is sufficient by itself to account for electrodynamics — without invoking relativistic mass increase.
He has proposed experiments intended to exhibit the decrease of electrical force with speed, and has offered non-relativistic re-readings of experiments usually cited in support of special relativity, including those of Bertozzi and Rogers, the Michelson–Morley, Sagnac, Michelson–Gale and Fizeau experiments, and the aberration of light and Doppler shift.
Relativistic mass, mass–energy and the aether
Abdullahi rejects the interpretation of relativistic mass as a real increase of a particle's mass, treating the observed behaviour of fast particles instead as a consequence of the velocity-dependent accelerating force. In a related line of work he has argued for a mass–energy equivalence of the form E = ½mc² rather than E = mc², offering several derivations of this result.
He has also developed an electric field model of the aether, in which space is treated as a balanced electric field medium serving as the propagating medium for light, and has extended his modified force law to gravitation — proposing that the force of gravity between electrically neutral bodies arises from the electrostatic interaction of their constituent charged particles, and offering explanations of inertia and gravitation outside general relativity and quantum mechanics.
His work has been presented at conferences and published in independent and open-access venues rather than in the mainstream peer-reviewed physics literature.
Honors
Abdullahi is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Academy of Engineering, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. In 2005 he was awarded the Nigerian national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).
CNPS talks
He has presented in the CNPS online seminar series:
- "A Velocity Factor in Coulomb's Law" (28 February 2026) — hosted by Ian Cowan
Abstracts
- 2016 - "Aberration of Electric Field and Velocity of Transmission of an Electrical Force"
- 2016 - "An Explanation for the Cause of Force of Gravity outside General Relativity"
- 2006 - "An Alternative Electrodynamics to the Theory of Special Relativity" (Read in full)
- 2004 - "Terminal Speed of an Electron Accelerated by an Electric Field"
- 2004 - "An Explanation of Inertia outside General Relativity "
- 2004 - "An Explanation of Gravitation outside Relativity"
- 2004 - "An Explanation of Inertia outside Relativity "
- 2004 - "An Explanation of Gravitation outside General Relativity"
Books
Selected papers
Abdullahi has published some eighty papers in the General Science Journal alone. A selection:
- 2025 - "A Modified Coulomb's Law and Newton's Second Law of Motion"
- 2025 - "Michelson-Morley Experiment and the Theory of Special Relativity"
- 2025 - "Electric Field Intensity of a Moving Charged Particle"
- 2024 - "Gravity: A Pushing Force of Attraction Between Neutral Bodies"
- 2024 - "Proposed Experiment to Show Decrease of Electrical Force with Speed"
- 2024 - "Two Derivations of Mass-Energy Equivalence Law as E = (1/2)mc²"
- 2023 - "Motion of a Charged Particle in Classical, Relativistic and Radiative Dynamics"
- 2022 - "Ultimate Speed of a Charged Particle Accelerated at Constant Mass"
- 2021 - "Gravitation and Radiation Outside General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics"
- 2020 - "Gravitational Force of Attraction is an Electrostatic Force"
- 2019 - "Thirty-Six Summaries of Research Results in Physics, Electromagnetism and Relativity"
- 2019 - "An Electric Field Model of the Aether"
- 2018 - "Extending Coulomb's Law for Gravitation and Radiation"
- 2017 - "Dependence of Accelerating Force on Velocity of a Charged Particle"
- 2017 - "A Proposed Experiment to Disprove Special Relativity"
- 2016 - "Space: A Balanced Electric Field Medium as the Aether for Propagation"
- 2015 - "An Alternative Explanation of the Result of Bertozzi's Experiment"