May 9, 2011
A Quick Tour Through the Nature of our Universe
Astrophysicists like to talk about big concepts—like the nature of time, the universe, our very existence—but few make it understandable to the non-astrophysicist crowd. Usually these discussions leave my head spinning, unable to keep track of all of the concepts being flung my way. Which is just one reason why I found this talk from TEDxCaltech so fascinating. In the video, Sean Carroll, a Caltech theoretical physicist (and one of the writers of Cosmic Variance), discusses an array of topics: how entropy is responsible for the flow of time; that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate and how dark energy fits into that; as well as the future of the universe. And then he suggests that the Big Bang might not have been the beginning.
The ideas fly by so fast I barely had time to ingest one before the next one arrived, and I’ll probably want to watch this over a couple more times to take it all in. But I have to admire anyone who can make dark energy finally make sense for me.
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For Sarah: I sympathise with you confusion. The answer to “acceleration” and “dark” energy may be too simple for scientists to understand. GM=tc^3, a child could figure it out. In Planck units it is even simpler: M=R=t.