Angular momentum

Is the sum of the angular momentum of all the galaxies equal to zero?
If not, can anyone explain what this means?

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On 2006-12-29, Sam Wormley wrote:
Helpful person wrote:
Is the sum of the angular momentum of all the galaxies equal to zero?
If not, can anyone explain what this means?


No... the angular momentum of galaxies is non-zero. Look at the
definition of Angular Momentum
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/phys...rMomentum.html

And not that with any closed system Angular Momentum is conserved
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/phys...rMomentum.html

Galaxies are spun up and spun down by collisions and interactions
with other galaxies. Almost everything has some rotation.

I think he's asking in effect whether the universe as a whole has
some net angular momentum. Certainly individual galaxies do, but
what about the whole observable universe? And how could we measure it,
or set an upper limit? How large could it be without messing up the
isotropy of the microwave background?

Stuart Levy

Sam Wormley wrote:

Rotation of the universe with respect to what?

I believe one could define any point in the universe as a reference.
From there one could determine the angular momentum of each galaxy.
Add them up and obtain a sum and direction vector.

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