Hawking Forum Post 31846
| Subject: | Re: Very true Sam! |
| Date: | September 17, 2000 at 23:35:44 |
| Poster: | Samuel A. (Sam) Cox |
Hi: The point you make is subtle but important. Mathematics does not make the universe, we use mathematics to describe it...and when we extrapolate, many times we get interesting surprises, along with the lead balloons of course. The relativity model mathematically works, well OK (if you know what 0 and infinite values can do to the sanity of mathematicians) from 0-infinity. Except that the universe happily is not that way! Einstein understood well that the universe could not have infinite mass, nor the photon be massless, though an Einsteinian universe is eternal, and in that sense infinite (my 7-D concept). An Atomic bomb wouldn't be much of a bomb if photons of energy were massless! Life couldn't exist either. Energy does work, and to do work it must be massed. Massed energy not only does work, it makes the task of the theorist very interesting, for if photons have mass (and they do) and they travel at the speed of light (which they do), they represent an almost (there we go again!) infinitely massive matrix and reflect in infinitesimal form the dynamics and topological characteristics of the entire cosmos, 10 to the 53 KG. From our reference frame we can tell photons form an encompassing matrix because of "action at a distance". The finite mass of the universe is as easy as E=mc squared. Since the speed of light is finite, neither the total mass nor the total energy of the universe can be infinite numbers...for (here we go again) mathematical reasons. We live in a cosmos neatly balanced between the finite, (10 to the 53 KG, 10 to the minus 33 Cm and 10 to the 40th Cm plus radius) and infinite, having eternal duration. What really goes on in this here universe benefits or destroys us all, and really there isn't much we can do to change the situation, but it sure is fun observing carefully, playing the detective, and trying to understand, not only the universe, but of course some possible reasons for our own existence! Regards, Sam Cox |
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