1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day 3 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: in History Class, a show that uncovers a little bit 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: more about history. Every day. Today is March. The day 5 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: was March nine. British astronomer and mathematician Fred Hoyle appeared 6 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: on BBC Radio's Third Program to discuss his continuous creation theory. 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: It was on this broadcast that Hoyle used the term 8 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:42,520 Speaker 1: Big Bang to refer to the point when the universe began, 9 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: but he didn't believe that the universe began. In the 10 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:52,920 Speaker 1: nineteen forties, Hoyle reformulated the steady state theory along with 11 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: astronomer Thomas Gold and mathematician Herman Bondi. The theory said 12 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: that the universe is uniform through time and space, so 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,400 Speaker 1: the universe is expanding but always looks the same, and 14 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: it has no beginning or end. Instead, matter is created 15 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: continually and spontaneously throughout space. At the same time, scientists 16 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,400 Speaker 1: were exploring the idea that a singular explosive moment brought 17 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,959 Speaker 1: the universe into being and the universe kept expanding from there, 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: but Hoyle defended his cosmological theory to the end. On 19 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: March nine, Hoyle gave a twenty minute radio lecture on 20 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 1: the theory on BBC's Third Program. After explaining the theory, 21 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: he contrasted it to theories that were based on quote, 22 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: the hypothesis that all the matter of the universe was 23 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: created in one big bang at a particular time in 24 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: the remote past. During the talk, Hoyle mentioned the Big 25 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: Bang three times. People have read Hoyle's use of the 26 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: term as derogatory, but he has said that it was not. 27 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: He once said, I was constantly striving over the radio 28 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: where I had no visual aids, nothing except the spoken 29 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: word for visual images, and that seemed to be one 30 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: way of distinguishing between the steady state and the explosive 31 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: big bang, and so that was the language I used. 32 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: Hoyle wasn't convinced of the validity of cosmologies that predicted 33 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: that a definite origin of the whole universe occurred a precise, 34 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: finite time ago, as he put it in a nineteen 35 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,800 Speaker 1: sixty lecture. Even though his use of the term wasn't 36 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: expressly derisive, Hoyle made it clear that he thought the 37 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: idea of a big bang creation process was irrational. After 38 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: Oil's talk aired, the text was put in a BBC 39 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: magazine called The Listener and distributed widely. In early nineteen 40 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: fifty A series of broadcasts featuring Hoyle aired on BBC, 41 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 1: and books based on the talks were soon published in 42 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: England and the United States. In the book, Hoyle again 43 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,440 Speaker 1: used the term big bang several times, twice in the 44 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,959 Speaker 1: English version, four times in the American one. Scientists were 45 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: critical of Hoyle's theory, but they didn't pay much mind 46 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: to his use of the phrase at this point. The 47 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 1: term didn't immediately catch on, though the Big Bang creation 48 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: theory gained tons of traction beginning in the nineteen sixties, 49 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,639 Speaker 1: big Bang wasn't commonly seen in scientific publications until more 50 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: than two decades after first coined the phrase. Nuclear physicists 51 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: William Fowler might have been the first to get the 52 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: term into a research publication in nineteen fifty seven, but 53 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: it wasn't until the nineteen seventies when scientific papers began 54 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: using the phrase regularly. After nineteen ninety, use of the 55 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: term regarding the origin of the universe exploded pun intended 56 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: research on cosmic background radiation weaken support of the steady 57 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: state theory, and now evidence points to the likelihood of 58 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: the universe changing over time. Today, the Big Bang theory 59 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: is the most widely accepted explanation for the universe's beginnings. 60 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: There are people who feel the term it's inappropriate and 61 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:16,880 Speaker 1: too undignified to represent such a momentous occasion, but today 62 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: big Bang is widely used by scientists and lay people alike. 63 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: I'm Eavestep Coote and hopefully you know a little more 64 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,840 Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. And here's another 65 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: note about the usage of big bang in the beginning. 66 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: The first scientific paper to use the term big bang 67 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,600 Speaker 1: and its title was received by the Journal of Meteorology 68 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: a couple of months before Hoyle coined the phrase. The 69 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,479 Speaker 1: paper was about the meteorological effects of a large TNT explosion. 70 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: Thank you for listening and see you again tomorrow. Keep 71 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: up with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t 72 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:05,680 Speaker 1: d I h C podcast Best. 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