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

Multiply the size again by a billion, and we're as big as the solar system. Magnetic forces, electrical forces, and the time are all still proportional. Multiply by another billion, and we're up to galaxy size. Finally, another billion gets the model up to the size of the universe we can see, and yet the sizes, forces, and time are all proportional.

With this convenient proportion-feature, it doesn't matter that our probes can't go far enough to tell us much about the universe. We can shrink a mammoth event in outer space down and study the phenomenon in a laboratory. For example, if an event takes a billion years to complete, we divide by a billion, and we're down to a year. If we divide by another billion, the time becomes part of a second, and we've arrived at lab-table size.

Do you remember the tube where we used millions of amps, took X-ray pictures of the filament action, and saw the ends of twisting filaments starting to blend together? The formation looked like a spiral galaxy, and in actual tests, physicists were able to get the laboratory galaxies to match all the varieties of galaxies we see light-years away by changing the values a little. It hurts my head to think of filaments in outer space big enough to create galaxies, but the familiar, right-angle forces between electricity and magnetism naturally cause a spiral.

Two or more filaments twisting together formed our galaxy.

WHATS A RADIO GALAXY

For years, astronomers saw what they called radio galaxies. These galaxies blast out beams of energy into space, and we pick up radio waves from the streams shooting out along the axis. Up to now, we've thought that somehow a black hole in the center of the galaxy generates these waves. We have a bit of a problem trying to simulate a black hole in a laboratory, but we can imitate the event using plasma physics.

Chapter 0-Page 0

Sections

HOW DO WE GET AT PLASMA

CAN WE GO OUTSIDE YET

WHAT WAS THE FIRST CLUE

WHAT'S PLASMA GOOD FOR

WHAT ELSE CAN BE EXPLAINED

WHERE COSMIC RAYS COME FROM

WHY IS OUR GALAXY A PINWHEEL

WHAT'S A RADIO GALAXY

WHAT'S A QUASAR

HOW BIG/OLD IS THE UNIVERSE

CAN THE BIG BANG BE SAVED

WHAT'S BIG BANG'S HISTORY

WHAT NOW

FINAL THOUGHTS

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