From: Hubert Mania (humania@t-online.de)
Date: Thu Aug 15 2002 - 07:07:47 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: Spudboy100@aol.com
To: extropians@extropy.org
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: Nature Article
Humania said:
Imagine a dark blue balloon with dots of pink
color on it. If you blow up the balloon, the dots
move away from each another. The expanding part
of this system is the skin of the balloon, not
the dots. But you have the impression that the
dots are also moving. Now think of the balloon
skin as space time, while the dots are the
galaxies.
And you might be God performing that very special
blow job.
humania>>
>The balloon analogy, that astronomers frequently use, really stinks. Why? Because balloons have a space inside (when inflated) and there is the tremendously larger outside region, which is the room, building, atmosphere;etc. It mis-describes what they are trying (wrongly) to convey.
They imagine a "balloon that inflates, which neither has an inside, nor an outside. This is logically impossible, and thus is an impossible model<
Four-dimensional space time also seems logically impossible to the astronomy newby. I guess for people who are challenged for the first time in their lives with the idea of the expanding universe it is a reasonably illustrative picture, because it shows in a beautifully simple way that it is *space time* itself that expands and not matter. But you may be right with your objections when it is time for a more sophisticated discussion on this subject.
Cheers
humania
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