Table of Contents

Preface

1. Scientific Theories and Laws

2. The First Decade (1936-1946)

3. Relativity

4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)

5. Quantum Mechanics

6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)

7. The Big Bang

8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)

9. The Non-Bang

10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)

11. The Never-Bang

12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)

13. Evolution

14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)

15. The Theory of More than Everything

16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)

17. Now What?

18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)

Appendix A Paintings

Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe

Appendix C Musical Compositions

Bibliography

Chapter 0-Page 0

HOW WARM IS THE UNIVERSE

This question sounds kind of silly, but the answer gave evidence of an explosion.

First of all, what is heat? As you already know, the air in a car tire is all atoms, and the atoms inside the tire are a little excited carrying a certain amount of energy. They bounce around in there against each other and against the inside of the tire creating heat and pressure keeping the tire inflated. If you measure the temperature in the tire, you will probably find it is the same as the temperature outside the tire. If you pump in more air, the tire will barely expand, but the pressure and temperature will go up because you've put more atoms in there that run into each other more often. If the outside temperature drops and cools the tire, the atoms aren't as excited, and both the temperature and pressure in the tire go down. You've probably noticed you need to add air to car tires to keep them at a proper pressure in the wintertime (especially in Minnesota).

The mercury in a thermometer rises for the same reason the air in the tire wants to expand. In contact with a warmer object, the atoms in the mercury become more excited, and the liquid expands against the closed air-pressure inside the tube. Heat always flows from a warmer object to a cooler object (in spite of the fact it feels as if the cold went from his/her feet to your back).

We're used to reading temperatures on our house thermometers in Fahrenheit (in this country). In the Fahrenheit scale, water generally freezes at 320 above zero and boils at 2120 above zero, but scientists prefer Celsius. In the Celsius scale, water freezes at 00 and boils at 1000 with 00 on a Celsius thermometer aligned with 320 on a Fahrenheit thermometer, and one Celsius degree is about twice the temperature change of one Fahrenheit degree.

Another temperature measurement geared more towards cosmology is called the Kelvin scale.

Chapter 0-Page 0

Sections

WHY KEEP LOOKING OUT THERE

CAN WE LEARN THE TRUTH

WHAT DO WE KNOW SO FAR

HOW OLD IS THE EARTH

WHAT'S THE MATTER

HOW WARM IS THE UNIVERSE

HOW BIG IS THE UNIVERSE

DO GALAXIES ACT UNEXPECTEDLY

WHY DOES UNIVERSE ACT SO

HOW DID THE UNIVERSE EXPAND

WHAT'S NEXT

FINAL THOUGHTS

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