- #1
Pavel
- 84
- 0
I watched the Big Bang show on the History channel and a couple of things they had said raised my eyebrows. I wanted to ask you guys what you think.
First, they said that the Universe is 156 billion light years across. Where do they get that number? Is that based on the rate of inflation? But I thought they really don't know how much (precisely) it expanded. Otherwise, isn't the visible Universe 13.7 x 2 billion light years across? So do we now know how far it extends beyond the horizon?
Second, speaking of inflation, they said that the reason the inflation broke the cosmic speed limit (c) is because when it expanded, the forces were all united and therefore the physical laws-including the speed of light-didn't apply. But I thought that inflation has nothing to do with the speed of light. When space expands, the fabric itself stretches, not that the physical objects travel faster than speed of light. Isn't the same true for inflation as well? Besides, I thought inflation happened after the gravity split from the superforce. When do the laws of the speed limit start applying? After the electroweak force split into electromagnetic and weak ones??
Thanks,
Pavel
First, they said that the Universe is 156 billion light years across. Where do they get that number? Is that based on the rate of inflation? But I thought they really don't know how much (precisely) it expanded. Otherwise, isn't the visible Universe 13.7 x 2 billion light years across? So do we now know how far it extends beyond the horizon?
Second, speaking of inflation, they said that the reason the inflation broke the cosmic speed limit (c) is because when it expanded, the forces were all united and therefore the physical laws-including the speed of light-didn't apply. But I thought that inflation has nothing to do with the speed of light. When space expands, the fabric itself stretches, not that the physical objects travel faster than speed of light. Isn't the same true for inflation as well? Besides, I thought inflation happened after the gravity split from the superforce. When do the laws of the speed limit start applying? After the electroweak force split into electromagnetic and weak ones??
Thanks,
Pavel