1. Scientific Theories and Laws
2. The First Decade (1936-1946)
4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)
6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)
8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)
10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)
12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)
14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)
15. The Theory of More than Everything
16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)
18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)
Appendix A Paintings
Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe
Appendix C Musical Compositions
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The judge, having taken Physics 101 many years before, thought the explanation sounded reasonable at first but was a little suspicious and retired to his chambers to do some math. When he came back to the courtroom, he fined the professor for speeding.
Now we know galaxies move, but as usual in physics, one answer leads to another question. We see many galaxies out there, but are they all closing in on us? It's time to get a better telescope and check some of the others, exactly what that same astronomer did in 1913 and 1914. You may notice my avoidance of names with dates in this book. That's done in order to keep focus on the ideas, and also, so you won't think we're going to have a quiz later. If you want more details, Gribbin's book can supply them.
By the end of 1914, astronomers measured the shift for up to thirteen galaxies. Only two had a blue shift (coming towards us), but all the rest had a red shift (going away). Whew, that was close. By 1925, we'd measured forty-five galaxies, but still, those two early galaxies were the only ones heading our way. All the rest moved outwards, some at the rate of six hundred miles per second, and we found another relationship. The farther away a galaxy was, the faster it went. From then on, astronomers didn't have to use the brightness of the galaxy to tell how far away it was; they measured distance using the red shift.
Are we the center of an expanding universe? Except for those first two galaxies, why do the others run away from us? Did we not shower this morning? Let's think it over. Close galaxies go away, but the farther ones go away faster. If some beings on a neighboring galaxy look at us, they see us and all the other galaxies running away from them.
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