From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Mon Nov 03 1997 - 08:24:23 MST
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>Me:
>>In 1949 George Gamow used the Big Bang theory to predict that the
>>universe would be full of microwave black body radiation at a
>>temperature of about 5 degrees Kelvin.
>Damien Broderick <damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
>John Clark wrote informedly as usual, with one exception: [...]
>Actually, the prediction by Geo. (which he pronounced `Joe') Gamow
>was 50 degrees K. So he was out by an order of magnitude. Not bad
>for a standing jump.
Damien I think you're wrong, ah, the stuff you said about Gamow I mean,
the things about me were rather more accurate. (:>)
On page 142 of The Principles Of Physical Cosmology by P.J.E. Peebles:
"Alpher and Herman (1948) corrected some numerical errors in Gamow's
calculation and used the result to compute the present temperature
predicted by this theory. Their value, 5 degrees K, is the first numerical
estimate of the present cosmic blackbody radiation temperature and again
quite close to what is observed. [2.7 K]"
On page 283 of Black Holes, Quasars And The Universe second edition by
Harry L Shipman:
"they put it at 5 K in their 1949 paper. Four years later Gamow set it at
7 K."
Actually I did make a mistake at the end of my last post when I talked about
my Hotel with and infinite number of rooms, I said:
"An infinite number of guests walk in and ask for a room. No problem, I just
tell guest #1 to move to room 2, 2 to move to 4, 4 to move to 8 ect."
I should have said move guest #1 to room 2, 2 to 4, 3 to 6, 4 to 8, 5 to 10
etc. That way all odd numbered rooms are free and my infinite number of new
guests have a place to sleep. Speaking of sleep, this should teach me to go
to bed and not post to Extropians when I get sleepy.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.i
iQCzAgUBNF3z/H03wfSpid95AQFTlQTwsTcmttveeucmwo9CdY8njPgNkIHPobAK
xNlbcA5PaNtHCbA8bAQ0tBQKLll7n08vPC3UIDjZPVNftSG1cQtVXIrf9kckAnZV
bgGUEtYzKN8iT/ES5+QqMVTLYac8AZIiABUbyRroLmaJNpGlFy+7GnGPufdMy7VF
S2f0dowco1mfWeXKWZ6NOrirf1L/wwa3uUGQL0JOlohi8X5AC3Y=
=IIOz
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:45:05 MST