SciAm Lineweaver cosmology article, March issue

[marcus]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147

we've referenced the clear and useful journal articles of Charles Lineweaver and Tamara Davis a lot at PF over the past couple of years

Glad to see that they now have a feature article in SciAm, and that it is available free online!

 

[tribdog]

that's where I got the information for the test I wrote in here a couple of days ago.

 

[marcus]

Good going tribdog!

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147

we've referenced the clear and useful journal articles of Charles Lineweaver and Tamara Davis a lot at PF over the past couple of years

Glad to see that they now have a feature article in SciAm, and that it is available free online!

The gist of the article is contained in a few visual "sidebars" which ask a question, give a "popular misconception" wrong answer, and then give the right answer:

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p39.gif
What kind of explosion was the big bang?

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p40.gif
Can galaxies recede faster than light?

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p42.gif
Can we see galaxies receding faster than light?

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p43.gif
Why is there a cosmic redshift?

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p44.gif
How large is the observable universe?

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p45.gif
Do objects inside the universe expand, too?

 

[Chronos]

Surely you don't expect all those 'mainstream' answers to be correct.

 

[marcus]

there are 6 mainstream answers here. Only #5 is quantitative: "how large".
Even #5 is essentially qualitative, saying that the radius of the observable is substantially larger than the estimated age expressed in lightyears (14 billion LY)

I consider these 6 qualitative propositions to be reasonable and not especially model-specific. I suspect that any new model which could succeed in replacing the current consensus model is likely to have at least these six qualitative features..

And so I hope anyone here who disagrees will say explicitly which of these features he expects not to hold in whatever replacement consensus model when such a model has been tested and has prevailed

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p39.gif
What kind of explosion was the big bang? (an expansion of space, not an explosion localized in space)

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p40.gif
Can galaxies recede faster than light? (yes)

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p42.gif
Can we see galaxies receding faster than light? (yes)

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p43.gif
Why is there a cosmic redshift? (stretching of light in transit)

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p44.gif
How large is the observable universe? (substantially larger than 14 billion LY, i.e. than the estimated age expressed in lightyears)

http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147_p45.gif
Do objects inside the universe expand, too? (in a qualitative sense, coherent objects like galaxies or the things in them are not at present expanding)

 

[Chronos]

One of my usual wisecrack answers. I would argue Q5 is not really relevant. I'm thoroughly comfortable with the BB model, as you probably suspect.