Yes, dark energy *is* what he was talking about. Thanks for that clarification. The original expansion is just a result of the residual inertia of the big bang.
On Thursday, January 23, 2014 7:40:03 PM UTC+11, Liz R wrote: > > On 23 January 2014 20:09, Pierz <pie...@gmail.com <javascript:>> wrote: > >> >> I once heard a cosmologist say that you can't feel the force of repulsion >> due to cosmological expansion between your fingers because at that distance >> it is imperceptibly small. But if your fingers were at either end of the >> universe you'd feel an immense pressure pushing them apart. >> > > If he's talking about dark energy, fair enough, although since we don't > know what it is, I'm not sure how he could make that statement with > confidence (about the force being there between your fingers, I mean). > > However, if he wasn't talking about dark energy, I don't understand. I > don't think that the hubble flow *itself* involves a force. That is, the > contents of the universe are moving apart (except where they're > gravitationally bound) and they are interacting via gravity and dark > energy, whatever that is.... and that's all that's involved. Cosmological > expansion is simply movement, galaxies on either side of the universe > aren't being pushed apart by anything *other* than dark energy, and not > being pulled together by anything except gravity (as far as we know). There > isn't a force of repulsion making the universe expand - apart from dark > energy - it simply IS expanding. > > WAS he talking about Dark Energy? > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
