Posted on 12/22/2002 6:07:08 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Space might end up dark, thick and boring.
The Universe is not as bouncy as some think, say two physicists. If a Big Crunch follows the Big Bang, it may get stuck that way for ever1.
A fluid of black holes would bung up space. There would be nothing to drive another Big Bang, and nowhere else to go. The Universe would be, you might say, stuffed.
In a bouncing universe, all the matter currently flying apart slows until it reverses and falls towards a Big Crunch. Some physicists think this could ignite another Big Bang, in an unending sequence of expansion and contraction.
An idea called M-theory suggests how the switch from crunch to bang could happen2. The details depend on the shape of space: whether it is infinite and flat, or finite and curved like the surface of a balloon or a doughnut.
Thomas Banks of Rutgers University, New Jersey, and Willy Fischler of the University of Texas at Austin have considered a flat, infinite space in which particles get ever closer and ever denser.
In a space with such features, the smallest kinks in density are amplified into black holes, the densest objects in the Universe. So the whole of space-time would congeal into a very lumpy soup - a black crunch.
"We don't really know what this fluid is made out of," Fischler admits. But he and Banks argue that it may reach a pressure at which it cannot become any denser. At this point, the speed of sound equals the speed of light. Deadlock results.
No theory can cope with a Big Crunch. Because of this, says Fischler, the analysis that he and Banks have performed remains speculative. And a doughnut-shaped Universe could meet a quite different fate, he adds.
References:
1. Banks, T. & Fishler, W. Black Crunch. Preprint http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0212113, (2002). |Article|
2. Khoury, J., Ovrut, B. A., Seiberg, N., Steinhardt, P. J. & Turok, N. From Big Crunch to Big Bang. Preprint http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0108187, (2002). |Article|
[See the original article for links in the footnotes]
Every time I see that depiction of Washington crossing the Delaware, I imagine the rest of the guys in the boat as the chorus, singing "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from the musical "Guy's 'n' Dolls"....
Sorry; had to share that with somebody.....
"Control Room"..... hmmmmmm.
Isn't that were all the Dominatrixes hang out until their next sex slave arrives?
And RA claims he does what there... "orbital mechanics"? Yeah, right! He's probably greasing the pulleys and cleaning the whips and chains, while dancing to the "Masochism Tango"!
ROTFLMAO! If I had a job that interesting, would I be hanging out on FR?
Hehehe! Merry Christmas my friend. :-)
"merry christmas, you punk"Placemarker.
227 posted on 12/24/2002 8:48 PM EST by MacDorcha
Post #116: "snip" keep trying though, your attempt shows how long you've been out of school.
Post #129: "snip" i said you need to be put in your place
Post #139: Removed by Moderator (was to me)
Post #151: "snip" i do as i wish
Post #153: "snip" it's people like you who kept the world thinking the world was flat,
Post #195: "snip" dont smear your almighty babble on me if you want me to listen "snip" but if you want to even resemble a respectable person, you may wanna try a new approach "snip" no wonder i think your methods are bunk.
Post #226: "snip" im not giving a damn about such rules.
Post #227: "snip" you punk. "snip" go ahead jerk. have fun
post #228: "snip" hey, if your old mind has you forgetting things so bad that you forget to read previous posts, im sorry, i guess ill have to remind you.
WOW! You sure have a way with words!
Well, a clean-up job like that could get kinda messy:
There once was a man from Maclean,
Who invented a sex-toy machine.
Concave, or convex
it would service either sex,
but oh, what a b*stard to clean!
You getting an early start on the bubbly? :-))
I can envision Andy Griffith shaking his head. "No, son! Pie are round. Corn bread are square!"
No, but when I do; LOOK OUT!
HAHAHA! Check out Physicist's post #183 :-)
Not all kids are this rude thank goodness!
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