- #1
Rafterman1
- 3
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Just a thought I literally just came up with sitting here on a Sunday morning after having joined this site about a minute ago (first timer). Reading some of these posts about the expanding universe and thinking about the idea of relative positions, I thought of this angle on things. Now, this has probably already been thought up but I haven't got my copy of 'science theories' handy.
Here it is; what if the universe does not expand, but matter condenses. This does not indicate whether space is expanding/fixed or anything, but just that matter is condensing. This could explain the observation that points in space are moving away from one another, as the distance between galaxies etc. would increase as the size of the galaxies decreases. The red shift observation indicating that areas farther from the 'centre' of the universe are moving faster away could be explained (perhaps) by faster rates of condensation due to less energy being present the further you move from the 'centre'.
Now, it is also my understanding, and this is where the relativity part comes in, that this condensation of matter would not be directly measurable. This is because the instruments, and indeed the observer, as well as the observed object(s) would all be condensing at approximately the same rate. Similar to the experiment where an observer is in a windowless room with no references other than himself or the walls. Are the room and observer moving at a constant velocity in a straight line, or are they stationary? Ok, so this is completely different situation, but the point is that no measuring device can observe what is trying to be measured, because the device is experiencing the same change. Therefore we cannot measure the condensation of matter on a small scale, but can see the change in distance between objects when talking about galaxies etc. What about planets and stars, why don't they contract in relation to one another? Measuring change in distance between them on this scale would not be noticeable, partly due to the small distances, and partly due to gravity keeping the masses at fixed orbits or at least causing them to coalesce into clusters.
So there it is. Please feel free to shoot this one out of the sky if you wish, as I don't think it to be the case anyway, I think I just had one too many coffees. Just food for thought...
Here it is; what if the universe does not expand, but matter condenses. This does not indicate whether space is expanding/fixed or anything, but just that matter is condensing. This could explain the observation that points in space are moving away from one another, as the distance between galaxies etc. would increase as the size of the galaxies decreases. The red shift observation indicating that areas farther from the 'centre' of the universe are moving faster away could be explained (perhaps) by faster rates of condensation due to less energy being present the further you move from the 'centre'.
Now, it is also my understanding, and this is where the relativity part comes in, that this condensation of matter would not be directly measurable. This is because the instruments, and indeed the observer, as well as the observed object(s) would all be condensing at approximately the same rate. Similar to the experiment where an observer is in a windowless room with no references other than himself or the walls. Are the room and observer moving at a constant velocity in a straight line, or are they stationary? Ok, so this is completely different situation, but the point is that no measuring device can observe what is trying to be measured, because the device is experiencing the same change. Therefore we cannot measure the condensation of matter on a small scale, but can see the change in distance between objects when talking about galaxies etc. What about planets and stars, why don't they contract in relation to one another? Measuring change in distance between them on this scale would not be noticeable, partly due to the small distances, and partly due to gravity keeping the masses at fixed orbits or at least causing them to coalesce into clusters.
So there it is. Please feel free to shoot this one out of the sky if you wish, as I don't think it to be the case anyway, I think I just had one too many coffees. Just food for thought...