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To: LibWhacker

How can the universe expand faster than c? Isn’t it the barrier that can’t be broken? I hear the trendy physicists on History Channel theorize that the universe expanded at faster than c - in the moments after The Big Bang. Yet, they don’t even give passing notice to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

If one carries this through to its logical conclusion, what we are seeing is 45 billion years old FROM OUR PROSPECTIVE, yet it is only 15 billion years old, FROM ITS PROSPECTIVE. Something ain’t right.


34 posted on 02/10/2011 8:01:33 AM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: NTHockey
-- If one carries this through to its logical conclusion, what we are seeing is 45 billion years old FROM OUR PROSPECTIVE, yet it is only 15 billion years old, FROM ITS PROSPECTIVE. --

But that is exactly the result that follows from Einstein's theories. The fast moving, and highly accelerated (e.g., under strong gravity) objects "age" at a different (slower) rate when observed by objects at rest. See "The Twin Paradox."

It really strains the brain, trying to fathom time as not immutable.

39 posted on 02/10/2011 9:53:09 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: NTHockey
How can the universe expand faster than c?

Nothing with mass can move through space faster than c. But that tells us nothing about how fast space itself can expand or inflate. Perhaps we should say it tells us nothing about how fast space itself can be created? One physicist I heard said that we shouldn't think of the Big Bang as a one-off event that happened 13.7 billion years ago... It's STILL happening.

41 posted on 02/10/2011 10:59:37 AM PST by LibWhacker
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