A couple of links from Day, both which could make you freak out if your that way inclined, each one very differently:
- Powers of 10: from 10 million light years away to 10 attometers away, looking at the same spot.
Another fun thing to think of while watching this is how the map is lying to you — how the dots scale, and so on and so forth. - Interconnected: a look at how everything is connected to everything.
Day’s a fun guy for this sort of thing. I still remember, soon after meeting him, that he proved to me that some infinities are larger than other infinities. It’s still a head-clutcher for me to this day. He also pointed out to me that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Which is oddly soothing: it makes me feel like I’m in the process of exploding, only really slowly, and if I’m lucky, I might die & decompose before I notice the side effects of this fact.
Except that the universe is only expanding where gravity is not holding it together 🙂 So it’s not expanding in our galaxy, or even between us the the Andromeda galaxy. But between us and and anywhere else that we don’t have a system with gravity it is.
Except that the universe is only expanding where gravity is not holding it together 🙂 So it’s not expanding in our galaxy, or even between us the the Andromeda galaxy. But between us and and anywhere else that we don’t have a system with gravity it is.
I believe it’s still an open question whether the universe will continue to expand or whether it will collapse back in on itself. I like the collapsing version, because it would set off another big bang, and then the universe is this endlessly repeating cycle – explode, collapse – again and again. Which means that the universe could repeat, and Nietzsche’s “eternal recurrence” theory could be right – we have to do all this shit again and again – i.e. you’d better make good decisions because you’re going to make that same decision the same way again and again for eternity… More likely the universe wouldn’t repeat exactly the same way each time, but it’s fun to think of it that way.
I believe it’s still an open question whether the universe will continue to expand or whether it will collapse back in on itself. I like the collapsing version, because it would set off another big bang, and then the universe is this endlessly repeating cycle – explode, collapse – again and again. Which means that the universe could repeat, and Nietzsche’s “eternal recurrence” theory could be right – we have to do all this shit again and again – i.e. you’d better make good decisions because you’re going to make that same decision the same way again and again for eternity… More likely the universe wouldn’t repeat exactly the same way each time, but it’s fun to think of it that way.
It’s really interesting right now. The idea for such a long time was that the universe would either keep expanding, or fall back into itself, depending on the amount of mass (more mass means more gravity). But it’s now looking as if after a long time of slowing down things are accelerating again. It’s all up in the air right now, but some sort of ‘antigravity’ seems to take effect.
It’s really interesting right now. The idea for such a long time was that the universe would either keep expanding, or fall back into itself, depending on the amount of mass (more mass means more gravity). But it’s now looking as if after a long time of slowing down things are accelerating again. It’s all up in the air right now, but some sort of ‘antigravity’ seems to take effect.
I’m amused that there are huge “missing” chunks of mass that should be there to match observations, and that they keep making up new kinds of matter (I think they’re up to 5 now, only one of which is the kind of matter we would recognize as such – you know, visible, having mass, etc.) In a recent SiAm, someone is fiddling with Newton’s equation for gravity to get around the discrepancies instead of adding more kinds of matter. The universe is a brat and will defy our attempts to find a “unified” theory.
I’m amused that there are huge “missing” chunks of mass that should be there to match observations, and that they keep making up new kinds of matter (I think they’re up to 5 now, only one of which is the kind of matter we would recognize as such – you know, visible, having mass, etc.) In a recent SiAm, someone is fiddling with Newton’s equation for gravity to get around the discrepancies instead of adding more kinds of matter. The universe is a brat and will defy our attempts to find a “unified” theory.