Bill Bryson and the big bang

I have just started to read Bill Bryson's

He starts off describing the Big Bang. Every thing started from a
singularity that suddenly expanded beyond recognition. He states that
in less than one minute the universe expanded to one million billion
miles across.

This means that the universe has expanded 0.5 million billion miles in
each direction in less than a minute. By my calulations (taking the
time to be one minute)the speed of expansion must be 8.333 x 10^12
meters / sec.
This is a little more than 186000 meters / sec, the speed of light. I
was under the impression that nothing could travel faster than the
speed of light.

Is there a reason for this or could the man be wrong?


Matt

Matt wrote:
I have just started to read Bill Bryson's

He starts off describing the Big Bang. Every thing started from a
singularity that suddenly expanded beyond recognition. He states that
in less than one minute the universe expanded to one million billion
miles across.

I wonder where he takes these numbers from...


This means that the universe has expanded 0.5 million billion miles in
each direction in less than a minute.

This "in each direction" is a bit misleading. The universe does not
expand *into* something.


By my calulations (taking the
time to be one minute)the speed of expansion must be 8.333 x 10^12
meters / sec.
This is a little more than 186000 meters / sec, the speed of light. I
was under the impression that nothing could travel faster than the
speed of light.

Is there a reason for this or could the man be wrong?

I don't think that the exact numbers are right, but in principle he
is indeed right. There is no problem with the speed of light, since
this is not about objects travelling *in* space, but about space itself
which is expanding "between" the objects.


Bye,
Bjoern

Dear Matt:

"Matt" wrote in message
om...
I have just started to read Bill Bryson's

He starts off describing the Big Bang. Every thing started from a
singularity that suddenly expanded beyond recognition. He states that
in less than one minute the universe expanded to one million billion
miles across.

This means that the universe has expanded 0.5 million billion miles in
each direction in less than a minute. By my calulations (taking the
time to be one minute)the speed of expansion must be 8.333 x 10^12
meters / sec.
This is a little more than 186000 meters / sec, the speed of light. I
was under the impression that nothing could travel faster than the
speed of light.

Is there a reason for this or could the man be wrong?

Just a couple more tidbits, as the other responders pretty much covered it:
- the speed of light is 300000 km/sec (roughly)
- Some cosmologists believe that c was very much larger for a few instants
right after the Big Bang (there is no light from the Big Bang present, and
the Universe's laws appear homogenous)

David A. Smith

(Matt) wrote in message . com...
I have just started to read Bill Bryson's

He starts off describing the Big Bang. Every thing started from a
singularity that suddenly expanded beyond recognition. He states that
in less than one minute the universe expanded to one million billion
miles across.

This means that the universe has expanded 0.5 million billion miles in
each direction in less than a minute. By my calulations (taking the
time to be one minute)the speed of expansion must be 8.333 x 10^12
meters / sec.
This is a little more than 186000 meters / sec, the speed of light. I
was under the impression that nothing could travel faster than the
speed of light.

Is there a reason for this or could the man be wrong?


Matt

The expansion of the universe is a subltly different animal. You see
the dimensions of space and time were created in the BB, and it was
the dimensions of space that expanded. So the space between point A
and point B grew faster than the speed of light, neither point A nor
point B traveled faster than the speed of light, however the distance
between point A and point B did expand faster than the speed of light.

It is as if the ruler that measures the speed of light changed its
length while the light itself remained traveling at the same speed.

This event is called 'inflation' and there is considerable evidence
that this event 'took' place (see WMAP and COBE data)

Mitch

On 15 Jun 2004 09:04:26 -0700, (Mitch Alsup) wrote:

The expansion of the universe is a subltly different animal. You see
the dimensions of space and time were created in the BB, and it was
the dimensions of space that expanded

Those dimensions were actually created in the cranial cavity of H.
sapiens grasping for an understanding of how the process of the cosmos
got started. BB is a widely accepted current theory. There are others.
Some even dispute the expansion of the universe. A lot may be
explained if the basic nature of gravity is ever explained.

Just a question:
If space is expanding faster than light speed the speed of
light (and the speed of anything) is NEGATIVE.

Does this make sense?

What does it mean

"The speed of light is 300 000 Km/sec"
if "Km" is not a constant but an expanding measure???

If space is expanding exactly at the speed of light, light doesn't move.

As far as I have understood this stuff, the size of elementary
particles remains the same even if space is expanding

At the other side, space expansion does carry with it the particles/atoms
or galaxies embedded in them. If we see red-shifted galaxies today is
because space expansion moves them away from us.

If space is expanding faster than light, all particles are moving away
from each other faster than light.

Is this right?

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 10:39:21 -0500, "Jim Jastrzebski"
wrote:

As for the "basic nature of gravity" (its physics) it is very
well explained by Einstein and so far there are no problems
with gravity itself as far as I know, but if you know about
any then please let me know since I'm very much interested
in this subject.

-- Jim
It was reasonably well explained by Newton. Einstein added curvatures
in `space'. But why - remains unanswered. Maybe dark energy will help
if it's ever well understood. I know what gravity does, I just don't
know what it is and exactly where it fits in the matter/energy cosmos.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 11:54:28 +0200, "jacob navia"
wrote:

If space is expanding
I can't get beyond this. What is `space'. Perhaps a stage we have
invented in our minds on which the drama of matter and power play
their drama. If it's a concept, then sure - it can expand, shrink,
bend, twist, cavitate, or do any damn thing we can imagine.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 10:01:45 +0000 (UTC), Midjis *@*.* wrote:

"but how did it get here"

A human question about a transcendent reality.

vonroach wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 11:54:28 +0200, "jacob navia"
wrote:


If space is expanding

I can't get beyond this. What is `space'. Perhaps a stage we have
invented in our minds on which the drama of matter and power play
their drama. If it's a concept, then sure - it can expand, shrink,
bend, twist, cavitate, or do any damn thing we can imagine.

If you don't like the phrase "space is expanding", what about
"the distance between any two (not bound together) points increases
with time"?


Bye,
Bjoern