Re: turnaround of expanding universe

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 05:34 PM 1/26/00 -0600, Cliff Parker wrote:
> I suggested that the universe could never
> stop expanding and assume a static state because the
> gravitational attraction of every bit of matter upon every other
> bit of matter would cause it to immediately begin to collapse.

Right.

> One students suggested that if Einstein's view of gravitational
> effects being caused by bent space-time were true then all
> massive objects could be at rest because there would be no
> gravitational force and according to Newton's first law objects
> at rest can stay at rest.

They fallacy is the assertion that there would be no gravitational
force.  Objects at rest stay at rest only _in the absence of forces_.  In
the momentarily at-rest universe, there would be lots of nonzero
gravitational forces.