Re: The Big Bang and Gamow (2)

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Tue, 04 Nov 1997 10:04:12 +0000


I quoted from Gamow's THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE (1952):

`Thus when the universe was 1 second old, 1 year old, and 1 million years
old, its temperature were 15 billion, 3 million, and 3 thousand degrees
absolute, respectively. Inserting the present age of the universe (t=10^17
sec) [...] we find

T present = 50 degrees absolute'

but perhaps should have noted that the calculation using this elided formula

1.5 by 10^10
temperature = -------------------------
[time]^1/2

used an age since BB of only 3.2 billion years (if I'm adding on my fingers
correctly), which gives 21 degrees K (ditto) for what is currently regarded
as a more plausible 16 billion years.

Damien Broderick