Dear Yousuf Khan:

On Monday, December 17, 2012 6:07:45 PM UTC-7, Yousuf Khan wrote:
....
Hmm, these replies just recently appeared on my
news server, even though they were posted a month ago.


On 19/11/2012 3:09 PM, dlzc wrote:

Dear Yousuf Kahn:
On Friday, November 16, 2012 4:48:16 PM UTC-7, Yousuf Khan wrote:

My feeling is that the majority of the
effect is just a reshaping of the gravitational
force effects.

OK, but this is not required, is not detectable
in the laboratory, and violates the laws of
physics not changing over time.

I doubt that this law has been absolutely proven.

Nothing is Science can be.

It may hold true within our current era, but
that's just a localized phenomenon.

Fine structure constant does not change as much as 1 part in 10^8 over the displayed history of the Universe, and the observations you have drawn your conclusions on *assume* no change in physics over that time.

then it's got to be an effect of vacuum energy,
just like DE is supposed to be.

That tool is blunted, as previously discussed.
The "energy", and the nature of that "energy"
was unchanged.

No, Dark Energy and Dark Matter might be just
an exchange of negative energy (gravitational
pull) for positive energy (accelerated expansion),
and vice-versa. All of the matter in the universe
is made of positive energy, while all of its
gravitational pull is made of negative energy.

Sorry, this is just so much wind here.

Gravity is often thought of as negative energy.

Incorrectly so, since it is energy-neutral.

So that leaves everything else as being made
of positive energy.

Zero-energy universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-energy_universe

Still just wind.

In the Inflationary period, a large amount of
positive push energy pushed the universe out
very quickly, and then that positive energy got
converted into matter

If it was not already matter, no push was required.

The matter would've had to come later, after
Inflation ended. That which is being "pushed",
is space itself.

Which arises from matter / energy, and cannot exist without it. Which is why it plays such a strong role in the curvature of spacetime.

....
Then virtual particles (which are also matter
and anti-matter, thus made of positive energy)

No, they are not. They are massless.

They are virtually massless.

They are *exactly* massless, since the quantum realm does not touch mass until it maps back into the classical realm.

They end up cancelling each other's mass, of
course. But I never said anything about having
mass, it's not even relevant, what's relevant
is their energy they release.

It is not relevant, because gravitation is not a force, and expansion, even acceleration of expansion, does not require energy, even if matter is involved.

You either throw out the baby and bathwater that provided you the observations you are playing in mudpies with, or you accept the assumptions that provided you those observations.

....
Inflation occurred before matter appeared,

Based on???

Chronology of the universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronol...ationary_epoch

Inflationary Big Bang would require that the
baryons and leptons only appear after Inflation
ended.

David A. Smith