What is the Universe expanding into..

Do you think there was anything before the big bang?

  • I don't think there was anything before the Big Bang

    Votes: 56 12.5%
  • I think something existed before the Big Bang

    Votes: 200 44.7%
  • I don't think the big bang happened

    Votes: 54 12.1%
  • I think the universe is part of a mutiverse

    Votes: 201 45.0%

  • Total voters
    447
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If you wanna get geeky about some of this SI stuff, there's free (for this month) courses on metrology and such here:
All e-learning courses free until 30 June 2020 - NPL

I've taken the first one "Introduction to Measurement and Metrology," it says it takes a half day, I think it's more like a day. I took it over three or four nights rather than all at once. It's likely not hard stuff for most posting here, if you know about component tolerances you already know at least half of it. It has a quick go-over of all the SI units.
 
The 5 Planck Units can be found here:

Constants of Nature : Einstein’s Intuition : Quantum Space Theory

Planck length lp
Planck mass mp
Planck time tp
Planck charge qp
Planck temp Tp

Multiply by Pi π 3.141592653589…
or fine structure constant Je ж 0.085424543135(14) (= root 1/137...)

and you can derive everything else. Pi and Je apparently define flat spacetime and maximally curved spacetime that our Universe tolerates without falling into the swampland of physical unreality.

AFAIK, capital letters tend to denote reduced Planck's constant quantities divided by 2 Pi. Complications to Hawking's ideas of Black Hole evaporation arise when they are spinning or charged. And in fact, it seems that even regular Black Holes might doom us when we collide with other galaxies, as we shall:
doomed

What is seems to boil down to, is Black Holes can't evaporate if Q/M exceeds 1. UNLESS Gravity is the weakest of the forces (the Weak Gravity Conjecture). Then it's all happy days and the Universe works sensibly again. Any questions? 😎
 
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"31 constants of Nature determined by the quantized geometry of spacetime"
That's heady stuff, Steve! 😎
 

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Glad you picked out that bit:

849755d1591229311-universe-expanding-spatial-curvature-png


We've seen this one before, haven't we?

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The Constants of Nature : Einstein’s Intuition : Quantum Space Theory is a bit David Bohm / De Broglie, and may be swampland physics, IMO. But that is a nugget, IMO.

I'd really like to talk about Gaussian Curvature again, much as you hate it:

634702d1505070553-classic-monitor-designs-gaussian-curvature-geometry-jpg


It is starting to look as if negative Gaussian curvature is also swampland physics. Black Holes are not stable in Anti de Sitter space, which is hyperbolic. Even cylindrical space has issues:

Problem is that infinities lurk in it, here a audio filter of sorts:

642779d1509267018-suppose-shallow-vs-steep-argument-brickwall-filter-png


And Nature goes out of its way to avoid infinities. I was yakking with my very smart niece, Juliet, about why the electron has a particular mass. The Coulomb Force q^2/r^2 is a bottomless pit. But the electron avoids falling completely down it, being held up by the quantum. Magic.

Enough on that. The best paper (2006) in Quanta Magazine is [hep-th/0601001] The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force

More geometry than algebra. But geometry and algebra are actually equivalent: The Greatest Mathematician You've Never Heard Of | The Walrus. So my sort of thing. 🙂
 
Don't Edvard Munch me, Galu. I used to stay not 100 yards from the famous Norwegian Munch Museum on the edge of Kampen Park!

One day, while "She who must be Obeyed" was at her employ, I was mooching disconsolately around the extremely dull local museum... when a row of 5 Black Mercedes turned up, I knew something was going on. Queen Sonja of Norway was onsite!

I rumbled up to introduce myself, like you do. Because I'm as good as anybody, and Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands and me are on waving terms. All these flippin' big Norwegian Policemen butted in. Never got to meet the lady. Her loss, IMO.

But a terrible picture, IMO. Much prefer Vincent:

843007d1589194376-universe-expanding-starry-night-vincent-van-gogh-png
.

I suspect you are trying to distract me from the fact you haven't done your homework here. The "Black Hole Catastrophe" might be solved by an undiscovered charged particle with less mass than the electron. Might even be Dark Matter, being hard to spot in the wild.
 
I suspect you are trying to distract me from the fact you haven't done your homework here. The "Black Hole Catastrophe" might be solved by an undiscovered charged particle with less mass than the electron. Might even be Dark Matter, being hard to spot in the wild.
The fact that the entirety of spacetime may be sucked and crushed into a black hole's singularity resulting in the end of this universe, the end of time, space and information?

Paah! I've got more important things to worry about! 😀
 
Worry more then. If Yellowstone Park exploding doesn't get us, or a meteorite, a Death burst of Cosmic Gamma Rays might:

The Nasa team keeping tabs on intergalactic death rays - BBC Future

Even evidence we have already been hit by a mild one as recently as the 8th. Century:

Gamma-ray burst 'hit Earth in 8th Century' - BBC News

I am amazed that BBC Future doesn't advertise itself. I suppose it's not for everyone.

Voayger 1 and II continue their epic journey, continuing to send signals back to NASA using the earliest signal correction codes to get a weak signal back to us.

Voyager: Inside the world'''s greatest space mission - BBC Future

And amazingly, that Viruses might actually be a GOOD THING. 😕

What if all viruses disappeared? - BBC Future

My serious study is still the Dick Feynman Physics lectures:

'The Character of Physical Law': Richard Feynman's Legendary Course Presented at Cornell, 1964 | Open Culture

Never put a foot wrong, that man. Where I am at in #3, is he seems to be saying that Quantum Mechanics might be a consequence of Special Relativity. Now that is good. 🙂
 
I found the article on viruses interesting, although it may be just a 'phage' I'm going through! 😉

Its good to know that the herpes virus makes mice less suscepticle to certain bacterial infections, including the bubonic plague and listeria.

I won't be volunteering for any human trials though! :gasp:
 
I was lucky enough to grow up in India, where Television was not available and the Weather was great and the People friendly.

On my return to the dismal rain and damp and fog of England (Southampton in January) I had little choice but to watch the Telly:

Thunderbirds, Voyage to Mars.

In hindsight, I quite relate to Alan Tracy. The youngest of 5, like myself. He got the dullest job on Thunderbird 3. The Space Rocket. Hardly ever even got to take off. Scott and Virgil always got the starring roles. 🙁

An angry young man. Tin-Tin fawned over his bouffant hairstyle, even invited him for "Coffee" at her apartment. 🙄

He rudely turned her down. Turned out OK though. AFAIK, he gets off with that splendid piece of Hot British Totty, Lady Penelope. FAB. 😎
 
"TB3 is primarily designed for space rescue missions, usually only flying straight upwards to space after launching. It can move very freely in space using vernier thrusters built around its whole body to perform delicate maneuvers. The engine array at the base of the rocket includes an incredibly powerful central ion engine for extremely long distance space travel, and three rocket engines surrounding it. Three grapple arms connect the middle of the ship to the three rocket engines, which can be deployed for various uses. The cavities where the arms sit have nozzles, allowing the engines to fire frontward when the arms are deployed."

I must buy the kit! :happy1:
 

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I must admit to being a bit rocket obsessed!

One of my hobbies is model making, and here I will list the model rockets and missiles in my collection (only the first three are currently built!).

  • Pegasus 1/48 V2 rocket.
  • Pegasus 1/72 Apollo 27 rocket.
  • Airfix 1/72 Bristol Bloodhound missile.
  • Airfix 1/144 Apollo Saturn V rocket.
  • Revell 1/40 Corporal missile.
  • Revell 1/40 Nike Hercules missile.
  • Revell 1/48 Honest John missile.
  • Revell 1/144 Discovery & Booster rockets.
And that's only a small fraction of the huge stash of model kits I don't have enough time left on Earth to build! :clock:
 

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Galu, I've gotta tell you I missed one of the Finest Moment's of my Life on Planet Earth. 😱

I was listening to Trainer Clive Cox rapping about his chances at Royal Ascot on Saturday on Radio 5L

He said he fancied NOT his chances in the later Race. Da Horse would sink down to his ankles into the soft ground. But liked his earlier Horse Nando or Parrado. A PROPER HORSE.

TBH, I got a bit confused. Two Horses? I must get a hearing aid. Well, I skipped it. Goddam, I missed the 150-1 winner. A bitter moment.

My current GF, Lorna consoled me that I might back him again next Fortnight. But surely not at 150-1. 🙁
 
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