this week.Fact: The earth's tides act as friction on the earth's rotation and slow it down.
So I've been thinking: During the ice ages day and night must have been quicker. If we still orbited the sun at the same speed then there must have been more days in a year. I wonder how long a year was?
Fact: The moon continues to spin away from the earth at a rate of just over an inch each year.
So I've been thinking: Millions of year's ago, the moon's pull on the tides must have been greater and the tides would have been monster! This would have been heaven for the creatures who lived in the intertidal zone. But does that also mean that the moon's effect on the tides is weakening and eventually the oceans will become big flat lakes? And will there be more days in the year because of the lack of friction on the earth's rotation like during the ice ages?
This is more a theory that I've come up with:
Most scientific models that I've seen on the expansion of the universe show it expanding like the surface of a balloon. It's been proven that this expansion is accelerating. Current theory's have the universe's rapid expansion reaching a point where it violently rips apart like the point where a balloon just bursts... so my theory is that maybe it won't rip apart. Maybe the universe is like a sound. It just keeps on going and never rips, it just gets fainter. Kind of magical.
I don't know anyone who I could even begin to discuss my thoughts with.
What's been on your mind?
7 comments:
I've always wondered how the universe can be endless. And if it is endless, how can it be expanding? And if it is expanding, what is it expanding into? And if it is not endless, what is on the other side?
Victor, I think the universe isn't endless. There is a map of it now. Beyond I think it's dark matter and dark energy. These two forms are the next big frontiers of exploration... if/when we figure out a way to really measure them.
I like thinking things like this. I think the best thing ever though was from the ABC kids TV show Plasmo, when Plasmo asks: "What if there was a whole universe in this blob of toothpase? And what if our whole universe is just a blob if toothpaste on someone else's toothbrush?"
I'm pretty sure the universe really is eternally repetitive like that.
The moon/tides don't affect how fast we orbit the sun, so the year is basically the same in this respect.
The ice ages were in the past so while rotation was faster than today, the deceleration was slower.
I don't know of any theories of the expansion of the universe which have a ripping apart scenario. In contrast, as entropy increases, an expanding universe becomes an increasingly sparse collection of cold matter, or as you say a fainter "sound". That's popularly known as the heat-death of the universe.
An expanding universe doesn't have to expand *into* anything. The internal metrics may be decreasing. An ant crawling on the surface of an balloon will perceive it as endless. When the balloon expands, it is both endless and expanding.
The one thing that struck me about the whole ice age/tides thing is that there's still water under the ice and it would still respond to the tides, so I don't know how much difference it would have made...
Also, you think too much :P
Ahhh, always a humbling thing to ponder our universe and our tiny little place in it.
If you want to read something really head-spinning about the universe, try this article from New Scientist
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