Weird Universe: Exploring the Most Bizarre Ideas in Cosmology (Astronomers' Universe)
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 3319107372
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
As new discoveries complicate the scientific picture of the universe, the evolving theories about the nature of space and time and the origins and fate of the universe threaten to become overwhelming. Enter David Seargent. Continuing the author's series of books popularizing strange astronomy facts and knowledge, Weird Universe explains the bizarre, complicated terrain of modern cosmology for lay readers.
From exploring some of the strange consequences of the theories of special and general relativity, to probing time dilation and the twin and mother-and-baby “paradoxes” and the theory that the universe can be mathematically considered as a hologram, all of the latest findings and conjectures are clearly described in non-technical language. The development of quantum physics and the more recent developments of string and M-theory are looked at, in addition to several hypotheses that have not won wide acceptance from the scientific community, such as modified gravity. Enter the wonderfully weird world of these theories and gain a new appreciation for the latest findings in cosmological research.
Mirror Earth: The Search for Our Planet's Twin
Observing and Measuring Visual Double Stars
The Observer's Guide to Astronomy, Volume 1 (Practical Astronomy Handbooks, Volume 4)
The Space Journey: Marcus and Mariana's Adventures with Uncle Albert
Billions of light years long! Let’s hope he does not decide to wash us down the drain … although on our scale of things we would probably not even notice if he did! And then, of course, he might also be under examination by another professor with even longer eyelashes … and so on ad infinitum. I am not saying that Van Flandern would have drawn such fantastic conclusions as these. Even such an adventurous soul as he must draw the line somewhere! Indeed, even the weird universe must draw the line.
Their help and encouraging support. I would also like to specially thank my wife, Meg, for her continuing encouragement during the writing of this book as well as to all who contributed, in whatever way, to its completion. No book about this “weird” universe in which we live would be possible without the long and complicated research of generations of scientists, both past and contemporary. To all of these, I extend my gratitude for at least partially unveiling this wonderful realm in which we.
(which itself was part of the ultimate frame of reference provided by the remote masses), this cannot be so for identical O-spheres, because these do not lie within any encompassing frame of reference: Each O-Sphere is the encompassing frame of reference for every lesser frame of reference within it. Not only is Captain Kirk duplicated (actually, replicated infinitely), but the entire frame of reference within which he exists is likewise replicated. According to every conceivable observational.
Infinite number of “elsewhens”, both past and future but still within the infinite space of this universe, I have existed/will exist. Of course, the concept of O-spheres was a foreign one in Nietzsche’s day as the discovery of cosmic expansion still lay in the future. What are we to say about all of this? Does this expose another weirdness of the universe or, just maybe, are these conceptual difficulties and seeming paradoxes pointing us toward a different conclusion. Rather than being pointers.
May choose X, in an alternate world splitting off from this world at the point of choice, we chose the alternative, Y. This idea was made the theme of the movie Sliding Doors where a woman’s life split into two entirely divergent histories depending upon whether she reached a sliding door before it closed or whether she was in time to squeeze through. If Everett is right, Schrodinger’s cat is alive in one branch of the universe and dead in another and Wigner’s friend sees the tell-tale flash of.