New Teacher Seeks Help on Universe Expansion & Space

In summary: This is a highly controversial subject as to what, if anything, came before the big bang. The currently accepted model of cosmology basically says that we know a lot about what happened AFTER the singularity and absolutely nothing about the singularity itself or any possible "before" ("before" doesn't really exist in the standard cosmological model).So you're next question HAS to be "how can something come out of nothing?". I can only suggest that you stock up heavily on headache pills and read about Quantum Mechanics.
  • #71
Tanelorn said:
Chalnoth,

If you were traveling at the speed of light and turned a flashlight on, what would happen to the light?
Relative to you, the light from your flashlight would still be moving at 3 x 10^8 m/s.

Yep, that's right

To allow this to happen, your perception of time slows down the faster you move and you gain more mass (E=mc^2).

No, as you move faster, YOUR perception of time doesn't change at all, but an external observer sees your time as going slower [and you see theirs as going slower]

I believe the above is correct. So my question is, at the beginning of the BB when all particles were moving very fast, would time effects like the above example effect our estimates for the rate of inflation, or even our estimates for the age of the universe since particles were moving very fast for quite a while?

If it did, do you seriously believe that every physicist who has studied the early universe was to stupid that they overlooked it?
 
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  • #72
phnds, no need to be abrasive, I am not suggesting anyone overlooked anything or was being stupid!
Anyway I was hoping Chalnoth could give me his thoughts on this. thanks.
 
  • #73
Tanelorn said:
phnds, no need to be abrasive, I am not suggesting anyone overlooked anything or was being stupid!
Anyway I was hoping Chalnoth could give me his thoughts on this. thanks.

You're right ... I was snippy and I apologize. I'm always taken aback when someone comes up with an idea that just could not possibly have been overlooked and then rather than say something like "it seems to me that ... so why isn't that the case", they ask it as though they think no one has ever thought of it before.
 
  • #74
I mostly expect to be completely wrong or missing a fundermental understanding when I ask these kind of questions, but at least I am still asking, which I think is a good thing.
 
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  • #75
Tanelorn said:
I mostly expect to be completely wrong or missing a fundermental understanding when I ask these kind of questions, but at least I am still asking, which I think is a good thing.

I couldn't agree more that asking is a good thing, I was just put off by the particular way you asked, and again I apologize for being snippy.
 
  • #76
Tanelorn said:
"If you were traveling at the speed of light and turned a flashlight on, what would happen to the light?
Relative to you, the light from your flashlight would still be moving at 3 x 10^8 m/s.
To allow this to happen, your perception of time slows down the faster you move and you gain more mass (E=mc^2)."

You cannot travel at the speed of light. Traveling arbitrarily close to c your perception of time would be vastly slower compared to "stationary" observers and distances would appear to you to be length contracted. However, you do not gain mass, you gain energy.
I believe the above is correct. So my question is, at the beginning of the BB when all particles were moving very fast, would time effects like the above example effect our estimates for the rate of inflation, or even our estimates for the age of the universe since particles were moving very fast for quite a while? I am very uncertain of which relativitic frames of reference apply in this case.Thanks!

Are you referring to inflation? In that case I am unsure of the effects that expansion of space has with regards to relativity. Does time dilation apply between areas that are moving apart at .5c thanks to expansion or inflation?
 
  • #77
If space was infinite before the Big Bang event and the entire mass/energy of the Universe was confined to a small volume and that volume expanded something like an explosion at the BB event, then it could be difficult to postulate a homogeneous and isotropic Universe. The outer regions of the Universe could see a very lower mass/energy density in the direction of expansion, as compared to a higher mass/energy density in the opposite direction. Given this scenario, it’s possible that the Universe wouldn’t be homogeneous and isotropic.

Seems to me that one way of having a homogeneous and isotropic Universe is if space is finite (i.e. compact).
 
  • #78
Imax said:
If space was infinite before the Big Bang event and the entire mass/energy of the Universe was confined to a small volume

You can't have it both ways. Either space was infinite OR it was confined to a small volume.

If the U was infinite at its inception, that does NOT mean that it could not have expanded exactly as it did.
 
  • #79
Imax said:
If space was infinite before the Big Bang event and the entire mass/energy of the Universe was confined to a small volume and that volume expanded something like an explosion at the BB event, then it could be difficult to postulate a homogeneous and isotropic Universe. The outer regions of the Universe could see a very lower mass/energy density in the direction of expansion, as compared to a higher mass/energy density in the opposite direction. Given this scenario, it’s possible that the Universe wouldn’t be homogeneous and isotropic.

Seems to me that one way of having a homogeneous and isotropic Universe is if space is finite (i.e. compact).

The problem is that to the best of our knowledge the big bang was NOT an explosion like we normally think of. Whatever the size of the universe, infinite or finite, whatever, the big bang was the starting point. This includes spacetime.
 
  • #80
In my earlier unanswered question I was asking if special relativity type effects have to be included in estimates for either the rate of inflation or even the age of the universe?

So I had a look around to see if photons which begin their journey in a higher density medium, with lower gravitational potential to a modern day lower density medium with higher gravitational potential, might undergo a red shift, and came up with the following:



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-creation_cosmology#Gravitational_red_shift [Broken]

Gravitational red shift
The local conservation of energy, and the consequential variation in rest mass, demand that gravitational mass is treated under the de Broglie wave theory. Mass is defined by the DeBroglie frequency of that particle. The red shift caused by the curvature of space-time, a time dilation expressed by the metric component, is suffered not only by the photon but also by the atom with which it interacts and is thus undetectable. The red shift that is detectable is caused by the increase in rest mass that fundamental particles undergo when raised to the higher level. Gravitational red shift in this theory is interpreted not as a loss of gravitational potential energy by the photon but as a gain of gravitational potential energy by the apparatus measuring it. The red shift predicted is hence equal to the difference in Newtonian potential and thus identical with that of GR as confirmed in the Pound-Rebka experiment.


Firstly, I hope this is acceptable science and that it is ok to post this, I am finding that posting genuine science questions here is getting somewhat risky of terse replies.

So does this effect, if real, make any contribution to CMBR red shift and thus estimates for the age of the universe? Oh - and I am sure that if it does, that it has already been included.




I also saw at the end of the wikipedia article a section on Dark Matter which looked interesting. Is this view accepted science?
 
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  • #81
This page explains the concept of Gravitational Red Shift very well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_redshift

Gravitational_red-shifting2.png




At the bottom there is also a discussion on gravitational time dilation:


Gravitational redshift versus gravitational time dilation

When using special relativity's relativistic Doppler relationships to calculate the change in energy and frequency (assuming no complicating route-dependent effects such as those caused by the frame-dragging of rotating black holes), then the Gravitational redshift and blueshift frequency ratios are the inverse of each other, suggesting that the "seen" frequency-change corresponds to the actual difference in underlying clockrate. Route-dependence due to frame-dragging may come into play, which would invalidate this idea and complicate the process of determining globally agreed differences in underlying clock rate.

While gravitational redshift refers to what is seen, gravitational time dilation refers to what is deduced to be "really" happening once observational effects are taken into account.



So is there anyone here who can speak to the level of contribution of gravitation red shift to the CMBR redshift and also the possible effect of gravitational time dilation on the estimated age of the Universe?
 
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  • #82
phinds said:
You can't have it both ways. Either space was infinite OR it was confined to a small volume.

It'is two different things. If you postulate that space is flat Euclidean and it can expand to infinity in all directions, it doesn’t preclude the possibility that the entire mass/energy of the U could occupy a finite volume near the Big Band event. What I’m trying to point out is that the BB event is unlikely to be something like an explosion, something you could expect from detonating dynamite. If this was the scenario, then it could be difficult to have a model of the U that was homogeneous and isotropic.

We are embedded within the BB event. A compact space model of the Universe can allow for closed space-like and closed light-like geodesics. A compact space model can explain a U that is homogeneous and isotropic.

And to all PF participates, Merry Christmas and Happy New year!
 
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  • #83
Imax said:
It'is two different things. If you postulate that space is flat Euclidean and it can expand to infinity in all directions, it doesn’t preclude the possibility that the entire mass/energy of the U could occupy a finite volume near the Big Band event.

If I'm not mistaken, it isn't that it can expand to infinity, it's that it IS infinite. Or might be.
 
  • #84
Imax said:
... it doesn’t preclude the possibility that the entire mass/energy of the U could occupy a finite volume near the Big Band event.

I contend that if it starts off not infiite it ends up not infinite. Do you disagree? How do you get from finite to infinite in a finite amount of time? Seems like a good trick to me
 
  • #85
Drakkith said:
If I'm not mistaken, it isn't that it can expand to infinity, it's that it IS infinite. Or might be.

well, my point is more that it EITHER is or it isn't, and you can't have both. If it isn't at the start, then it isn't now and if it is now then it was at the start.
 
  • #86
phinds said:
well, my point is more that it EITHER is or it isn't, and you can't have both. If it isn't at the start, then it isn't now and if it is now then it was at the start.

Agreed.
 
  • #87
phinds said:
I contend that if it starts off not infinite it ends up not infinite. Do you disagree?

No. Absent some kind of bizarre event, something like quantum symmetry breaking, then a U that was finite near the BB should be finite now. If space was infinite then, it should be infinite now.

My inclination is a U with a compact space (i.e. finite).
 
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<h2>1. What is the universe expansion?</h2><p>The universe expansion is the theory that the universe is constantly growing and stretching outwards. This means that the distance between galaxies and other celestial bodies is increasing over time.</p><h2>2. How do we know that the universe is expanding?</h2><p>Scientists have observed the redshift of light from distant galaxies, which indicates that they are moving away from us. This is evidence of the universe's expansion. Additionally, the cosmic microwave background radiation also supports the theory of expansion.</p><h2>3. What is causing the expansion of the universe?</h2><p>The exact cause of the universe's expansion is still unknown. However, the leading theory is that it is driven by dark energy, a mysterious force that makes up about 70% of the universe. It is thought to have a repulsive effect on matter, causing the expansion.</p><h2>4. How does the expansion of the universe affect space?</h2><p>The expansion of the universe is causing space to stretch and become larger. This means that the distance between objects in space is increasing, and new space is being created. It also affects the rate at which objects move through space.</p><h2>5. Is the expansion of the universe accelerating or slowing down?</h2><p>Recent observations have shown that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, rather than slowing down. This means that the rate of growth is increasing over time. However, this acceleration is still not fully understood and is an area of ongoing research in the field of cosmology.</p>

1. What is the universe expansion?

The universe expansion is the theory that the universe is constantly growing and stretching outwards. This means that the distance between galaxies and other celestial bodies is increasing over time.

2. How do we know that the universe is expanding?

Scientists have observed the redshift of light from distant galaxies, which indicates that they are moving away from us. This is evidence of the universe's expansion. Additionally, the cosmic microwave background radiation also supports the theory of expansion.

3. What is causing the expansion of the universe?

The exact cause of the universe's expansion is still unknown. However, the leading theory is that it is driven by dark energy, a mysterious force that makes up about 70% of the universe. It is thought to have a repulsive effect on matter, causing the expansion.

4. How does the expansion of the universe affect space?

The expansion of the universe is causing space to stretch and become larger. This means that the distance between objects in space is increasing, and new space is being created. It also affects the rate at which objects move through space.

5. Is the expansion of the universe accelerating or slowing down?

Recent observations have shown that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, rather than slowing down. This means that the rate of growth is increasing over time. However, this acceleration is still not fully understood and is an area of ongoing research in the field of cosmology.

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