From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Sun Jan 18 1998 - 21:00:24 MST
I think most of this is handled in the sci.physics faq.
EvMick, <EvMick@aol.com>, writes:
> If EVERYTHING is expanding...(The girl, the gold watch...and
> everything)...then why should a red shift be noticeable?
Not everything is expanding. Atoms are not expanding. Their size is
determined by the strength of the electromagnetic force and the laws of
quantum mechanics, which are not changed by the expansion of space.
> Also [Sheffield] said..
>
> "The universe may have been created out of nothing, by a zero energy
> fluctuation. And one day it may simply disappear, when the vacuum flutuation
> that created it pops out of existence."
>
> Now....if I understand correctly....Lerner (The Big Bang Never Happened)...is
> proposing something similar...but on a proton by proton basis...that is a
> vacuum fluctuation "creates" a proton...(uncounted zillions of
> them...constantly)...they coalesce to form hyrdogen...galaxies and whatever
> (the carbon cycle)...and eventually go "poof" decay...on an individual
> basis...
There is one key difference between creating the whole universe out
of a zero energy fluctuation and creating a single proton that way.
Making just the photon violates the conservation of mass-energy. But when
you create the universe, the positive energy of all the mass is balanced
by the negative energy of the gravitational field (or so I've heard).
There is zero net energy, so it is no violation to create it.
Hal
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