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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Can the universe last forever? If space were infinite before the Big Bang, then all the original radiation will continue outwards at the speed of light. The collapse won't be fast enough to grab the spreading radiation. If all the material falls back together because of gravity, the rebound won't be as big the next time. Eventually, the universe has to die.
Why do the farthest galaxies move away the fastest? Let's start with a common-sense explanation: An explosion will naturally be most powerful at the beginning and diminish in strength with time. Thus the first parts of the universe exploded outwards the fastest with the later pieces having less power behind them. There's one problem with this idea. It implies that we're close to the spot where the Big Bang started, and cosmologists never want to say we live in some privileged place.
Instead, let's try thinking about curved space being created right along with a material universe. Picture a ball of rising dough. Instead of peas, we'll use raisins to represent galaxies. (Raisin bread is tastier to imagine than pea bread.) Put the raisins right next to each other on the surface of the dough letting the thin surface represent curved space in three dimensions. Think of the Flatlanders (only in this case, we can call ourselves Curved-Spacers).
Let's assume the singularity of the dough took place twenty billion years ago. Fifteen billion years ago, from where we sit, we can't see any space between the raisins. The yeast rises, and as the years go by, the raisins move away from each other. The raisins themselves don't expand, only the space between them.
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