Time for the weekend post that nobody reads!
I'm not much into physics or astro-physis -- I'll tell you privately that I have read A Brief History of Time, but I won't do that publicly because then someone will want to discuss the book, acting like he or she actually understands the concepts; and then there is no need to get in an embarrassing situation. The Physics of Star Trek and Einstein for Beginners are better discussed in that situation.
Physics -- I had high school physics. I learned the physics part in about two weeks at the end of the school year when we went through the physics text. The first part of the year we listened to Mr. Wood read from a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He tested us on that.
In the first hour of NPR Science Friday today, the discussion was about cosmology and mention was made of multiverses, that is, multiple universes. The idea now being espoused is that there are many universes existing simultaneously, except it's not a theory because such a phenomenon is not observable because there happens to be no constancy of nature between the universes. We happen to be in a universe that is inhabited. The others may or may not be inhabited.
That sounds something like the Ptolemaic view of the universe, that we are inside a huge sphere and outside the sphere -- nothing. Or maybe other universes. The shape of our universe is another question -- it's not like a sphere or soccer ball, that model is, apparently, totally wrong. Maybe a donut -- a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. Still a possibility, or so say the cosmologists.
Posted by Bill at October 10, 2003 07:19 PMuh Bill? I didn't know I had to bring my notes. ;?~
I'll reread this when I have a clear head.
Posted by: Charlene at October 10, 2003 07:56 PMNo, we're in the bottom of a glass.
(I read it)
I always wondered that, if our universe is continuously expanding, exactly what (where?) is it expanding into!!??
Posted by: Philip at October 11, 2003 01:05 PM