I spent the fourth of July on the banks of the Willamette River watching the fireworks show. It wasn't too crowded and the air was brisk. The light show had a strange and pleasant effect on me. I kept visualizing ''the beginning of time' or more commonly known as "the big bang". Everything that is measurable in the universe started after a big light show certainly grander in scale than I was seeing. The diference being the fireworks I was watching was expanded into streams of light for a few seconds, while our universe has been expanding similairly for thousands of years. Every expanding universe must have began with a singularity. I think I appreciated the show a bit more having this thought to hold on to.I was driving past the Cascades last weekend and I noticed that from a distance the mountain range appeared symmetrical on the horizon. From a distance it looked the same in every direction. If I were to examine any mountain more closely, my result set would clearly change and I might be overcome at trying to compare all the differences between any 2 of the numerous peaks in the range. Is one observation more accurate than the other? Up close the natural world might be described as random (unique rings of a tree or rock formations in a cliff on the Cascades) and on a larger scale it might be described as recursive ( think of a forest or the Cascades) and the same in every direction. Depending on the experiment, the mountain range seemed to satisfy both of these seemingly very different states. I wonder if there is an experiment where both states are satisfied at the same time?
There is scientific evidence that suggests that the universe, on a large enough scale appears the same in every direction. It is also expanding in what seems a random fashion. Can the expanding universe be symmetrical and entirely random at the same time ? Isn't randomly recursive an oxymoron ? Hawking describes it as a balloon with dots painted on it that is gradually being filled with air. As the universe or in this case the balloon expands the distance between the dots remain consistent relative to each other.
2 comments:
we have this concept in statistics: or a simplified version of it. if there are 2 random series, they may be independent when viewed singly, but viewed together they have some constraints on their relationship. they call it cointegration. like a guy walking his dog on an elastic leash in a park: if you look at the guy in the park, he's moving randomly; if you look at the dog, he's also moving randomly; but the guy and the dog have some similar motion with respect to each other(but not the same---because the leas is elastic).but it only applies to 2 at a time. is there a method in physics to describe more than 2 at a time?
Jacob I guess it's all about perspective!!! Micro is VERY different from Macro...therefore in the space and time its all how you look at it...same applies to people too :)
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