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Creation



I wonder if the list can help me develop some useful language to use for
describing the "big bang" to relative lay people. I am not thinking of a
graduate class in GR, but of a introductory physics class or for an
intelligent HS class (if there be one).

I offer the following as a start for this language development:

From the point of cosmology *THIS* Universe (there may be many others) was
"created" ex nihilo ~15billion years ago -- at a *point* of zero volume.
Since then, this Universe has been expanding BUT it is not expanding into
some extant space -- it is creating its OWN space ie space is expanding as
well and the stuff of this Universe is expanding into this expanding space.
At first this space expanded faster [could one say >c? and have that be
understood?] than the stuff of the Universe (there were yet no galaxies or
even nebulae at this time). The rate of expansion of space is decreasing.
There is a debate as to whether the things (galaxies, etc) of the Universe
will catch up or not OR if the things of the Universe will collapse in
several billion years OR if space will collapse back to a point.

Please help me doctor this up.

Is there any hope of talking about "where" this occurred for this Universe
as opposed to "where" it might of occurred for any other Universe? Or for
that matter "when"? Things seem already out of hand, but could one ask how
a "quantum fluctuation" could occur in a point/place of zero (or near zero)
volume? -- I guess not.


Jim Green
JMGreen@sisna.com