1 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,480 Speaker 1: One of my favorite things when we give our lecture 2 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,080 Speaker 1: about what we don't know about the universe is the 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: questions we get from people in the audience. The best 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: questions always come from the youngest audience members. I remember 5 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 1: one time I gave a talk about liquid nitrogen in 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: front of elementary school kids and some kid asked me 7 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,040 Speaker 1: the question. He said, if lightsabers were real, would they 8 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: be made of liquid nitrogen? And Uh, that's I don't 9 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: even know how to answer that question. I was like 10 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: totally stumped by like a six year old. Wait, wait, wait, wait, 11 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: Star Wars is not real. Lightsabers are fictional. Horr heead fictional? Yes, 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: so you need to find some other defense against the 13 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: invading arm sampire. So the questions are a fantastic way 14 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,279 Speaker 1: to understand have I really communicated anything? Have people really 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: understood what I'm doing? And so that's why I love 16 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: the live aspect of a presentation, because you get that 17 00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: feedback from the audience. They're getting it, they're asking fall 18 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: up questions, or they're totally confused and they're asking you questions. 19 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: It seemed to make no sense. Yeah, if only you 20 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,959 Speaker 1: had jedim line tricks, Daniel, These are not the questions 21 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: you're looking for. This is the podcast you're looking for. However. Hi, 22 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 1: I'm Jorhan and I'm Daniel. Welcome to our podcast. Daniel 23 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:39,319 Speaker 1: and Jorge explained the universe in which we try to 24 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,679 Speaker 1: make the universe understandable to you, and this time we're 25 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: really going to do our best. Yeah. Today on the program, 26 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: we're going to be answering questions from you the listeners. 27 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: That's right. People have been sending us questions over email, 28 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: and some of them really tickled our brain and said 29 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: we thought let's dig into them because we thought other 30 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: people must have the same questions. Yeah, we have questions 31 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: here about the speed of light, about using giant lasers, 32 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: and about where is the center of the universe. That's right, 33 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: And these are just three questions that we chose from 34 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: the pile. There are other questions I wish we could 35 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: dig into, but we don't have time, like some of 36 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 1: the joke questions. Yeah, and so as a reminder, if 37 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: you have any questions even after today, after we answer 38 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 1: some of your questions, if you're a different listener and 39 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: have a question, you can always send us a question 40 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 1: at Questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. That's right. 41 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: Send us questions about anything, life, the universe, dating, bananas, whatever. 42 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 1: We don't promise to be experts in all these fields. 43 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: You don't want to answer dating questions. Yeah, we can 44 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: give an answer about dating, but you know, maybe you 45 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: shouldn't follow dating advice from a cartoonists and a physicist. 46 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,519 Speaker 1: I don't know that you're any more or less qualified 47 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:53,519 Speaker 1: to give dating advice than anybody else out there giving 48 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: dating advice. Horror, everybody's only got their own experience. You know, 49 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: you should definitely not get dating advice from me because 50 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: I haven't dated anyone since I was like sixteen. But 51 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: it was a success, right, So there you go, you 52 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: have a hundred percent success, right, I have a yeah, yeah, 53 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:13,240 Speaker 1: I have one data point Every date you take leads 54 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: to marriage, right, Yeah, there you go. Um yeah, so 55 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 1: listener questions so um, And this is one of your 56 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: favorite parts of teaching and giving cogs, right, Daniel. We 57 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: give a lot of talks across the country in other 58 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: countries about our book, and we always get great questions 59 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: at the end, right, Absolutely, we always get great questions. 60 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: Sometimes people show up with a question already. You can 61 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: tell they're burning to ask some physicists, um, and sometimes 62 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: they have a question that's inspired bout what we've said. 63 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes the questions are pretty random, but 64 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 1: it's always a lot of fun because you can really 65 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: try to explain it to the person and when they 66 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: get it, you can see that light go on in 67 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: their eyes when they finally the pieces of clicked together 68 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: and they have some understanding. And I love that feeling 69 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,839 Speaker 1: of like having an idea in my head translating into 70 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: land waves which then wiggle across space and get translated 71 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: back into an idea in their brain. I mean, it's incredible, 72 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: right that you can even translate an idea from one 73 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: brain to another. So when it's successful, I feel I 74 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: feel pretty good. Yeah, we'll enjoy that feeling before um, 75 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: you know, we're all plugged into the matrix and it's 76 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: just all automatic, that's right, And then we won't need 77 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,119 Speaker 1: podcasts because we'll all know what everybody knows all the time. 78 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: There'll be no privacy. All right, let's just jump into 79 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:35,479 Speaker 1: the questions, alright. Our first question comes from Sandy from 80 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: New York and he has a question about the speed 81 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,600 Speaker 1: of light. Hi Daniel and Horror. My name is Sandy Delone, 82 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: originally from New York City. I was hoping you can 83 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: talk about whether the speed of light has always been 84 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,200 Speaker 1: the same or whether it is a function of space time. 85 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: How do we know whether or not the speed of 86 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: light has been slowing down over time? Wow, that is 87 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:58,719 Speaker 1: a great question. Yeah. Well, first of all, he said 88 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 1: he's originally from New York. What does that mean? That's 89 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: so mysterious. Where is he that? Well, right now he's 90 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: on a rocket ship and at nearly the speed of 91 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: light hitting someone hoping speed right away. This pressing question. 92 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:16,479 Speaker 1: Wherever he is he can get the podcast, so he 93 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: can't be that far away unless he's from the future, 94 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: that's right, in which case, he invited time travel and 95 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: he knows more about the speed of light than I do, 96 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: so I should be asking him, would be asking him questions. Yeah, 97 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: you're saying these questions. Come to my house and show 98 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 1: me your time machine. But this is a great question. Basically, 99 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 1: it's the question of whether the speed of light has 100 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 1: ever changed. But the first thing I thought was, holy cow, 101 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: can the speed of light change? Is that even possible? 102 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: Is that something that might actually happen and not totally 103 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: break down the universe. Um, all right, So I'm gonna 104 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: make a classic mistake by saying, yes, all right, so 105 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,320 Speaker 1: it's possible for the speed of light to not always 106 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: have been the same. However, as a classical mistake, because 107 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: those people are just gonna hear that and then go 108 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: off and say this physicist said the speed of light 109 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:08,159 Speaker 1: might change. It's possible. And however, nobody takes that idea 110 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: very seriously. It's pretty well understood that the speed of 111 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: light is fixed, and we assume that it's not changing 112 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:15,279 Speaker 1: in time. We have no evidence to say that it 113 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: is changing in time, and we can dig in a 114 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: minute to the experiments that we've done, and the evidence 115 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: we have to suggests is constant. However, you know, there's 116 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 1: a limit to the kind of things we can know, 117 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 1: and some things are based on assumptions, and so the 118 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:29,760 Speaker 1: speed of light is one of those things, like we've 119 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,039 Speaker 1: never seen it change. We have no reason to imagine 120 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: it would have changed or will change. But you know, 121 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: there are things we don't know. So, for example, we've 122 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: measured the speed of light a bunch of times, but 123 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:43,279 Speaker 1: we don't know why it is what it is. You know, 124 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:45,479 Speaker 1: it's a number three times tend to the eight meters 125 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: per second. We have no reason to feel like it 126 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:50,840 Speaker 1: should be that number or some other number. You know, 127 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:52,719 Speaker 1: if we had measured it to be a different number, 128 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: we would have been like, Okay, that's the speed of 129 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:57,039 Speaker 1: light instead of this other number. So it's not like 130 00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,719 Speaker 1: it has a special value. There's nothing in the math 131 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: attics of the laws of physics that'd say the speed 132 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:05,359 Speaker 1: of light has to be this as far as we know. 133 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: I mean, somebody could come up with a deeper theory 134 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: of physics that doesn't have the speed of light as 135 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: an arbitrary parameter that predicts the speed of light, you know, 136 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:14,920 Speaker 1: that says it has to be this way because space 137 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: is made out of these quantum loops and that's and 138 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: they oscillated some certain frequency, and that determines the speed 139 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: of light. Maybe right, But we're not there yet at 140 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: this point. It's just a number we measure about the universe, 141 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: and I physicists love doing that. We go and we 142 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: measure these constants because we think there are clues about 143 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:32,480 Speaker 1: the way the universe is put together. Yeah, but I 144 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: guess what would happen if the speed of light did change? 145 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: Like if suddenly it was twice as fast as it 146 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: is now. Would anything change for us right now, like 147 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: in our everyday lives. Well, if it changed, so the 148 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: universities fall apart. Yeah, like suddenly, wow, suddenly, a sudden 149 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: change in the speed of light. That is an awesome 150 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: thought experiment. Um, I think a lot of things might 151 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:57,120 Speaker 1: break because, um, you know, we assume speed of light 152 00:07:57,240 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: is the speed of light, and we use that for 153 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: lots of things, like in the Internet, for to measure 154 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: timing of stuff. You know, we assume things travel as 155 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: certain speed. Wait, wait, wait, it might affect my web surfing. Right, 156 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: that's right, that's all right, let's don't even think about that. 157 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: That's too scary. Yeah, but you know, and on a 158 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:16,880 Speaker 1: deeper level, if you're like a philosophical kind of person, 159 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: you can ask even deeper questions like do we know 160 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: that the laws of physics themselves change? You know, we 161 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: have these laws like general relativity and quantum mechanics, and 162 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: they're pretty well established over you know, hundred years of experiments, etcetera. 163 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: And they don't seem to be changing. But that doesn't 164 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 1: mean they won't, right. The assumption that experiments are repeatable 165 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: is foundational concept of empiricism we have in science is 166 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:42,559 Speaker 1: itself an assumption. You know that the universe has laws, 167 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: and those laws don't change over time, so that we 168 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: can bit by bit do experiments to reveal them. That's 169 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 1: just an assumption. It seems to work, it works great, 170 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 1: it works amazingly. We've never seen hints of things changing. 171 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: But we don't know why the universe has laws that 172 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,599 Speaker 1: are discoverable and then don't change. So that assumption is 173 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:02,840 Speaker 1: based on a lot of data, but it's not based 174 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: on like a bedrock principle. It's like, there's no fundamental 175 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 1: reason why, and so it could certainly change, or it 176 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: could be changing really gradually over time. So we haven't 177 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:17,840 Speaker 1: noticed yet. So it can change, but we just haven't. 178 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: We don't think it's changing, that's right, But I guess 179 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:23,320 Speaker 1: the question is has it ever changed in the past, Like, 180 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: how do we know it wasn't different before? Right exactly? 181 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:29,679 Speaker 1: And so we have this awesome tool for looking into 182 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: the past, and it's called the universe. So you can 183 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 1: look out intil the night sky and you can see 184 00:09:34,559 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 1: what happened eight minutes ago. If you look at the sun, right, 185 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: don't stare directly at the sun of course. But you know, 186 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 1: the Sun you're looking at is not the Sun as 187 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: it looks like now. It's how the Sun looked eight 188 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: minutes ago. And the further out you look, the further 189 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 1: back in time you look, and we can see all 190 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: the way back to the very early moments of the universe, 191 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: and we can see physics happening. You know. We see 192 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: things rotating, we say things orbiting, we see things smashing 193 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: into each other. And we apply the laws of physics 194 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,960 Speaker 1: that we learn about here on Earth in our environment 195 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:05,200 Speaker 1: to those systems that we see deep in the deep past, 196 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:08,080 Speaker 1: and things make sense, and they make sense using the 197 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: same speed of light. So we see the speed of 198 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: light unchanged way way back into the history of the universe. 199 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: So that gives us a lot of confidence that things 200 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: haven't changed. Oh I see, So we when we look 201 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: at a star that's really far away, we're seeing the 202 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: results of physics not only that far away, but that 203 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: long ago. Yeah, exactly, And so that gives us confidence that, 204 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,400 Speaker 1: you know, the universe pretty much works the same way 205 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: now as it did billions of years ago. That's right. 206 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: And you know the concept that the speed of light 207 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: may have been different a long time ago UM is 208 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:42,280 Speaker 1: sometimes proposed by advocates of creation theory. You know, they say, well, 209 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,719 Speaker 1: the universe is only a few thousand years old, and 210 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,160 Speaker 1: then they have a problem. They have to explain, how 211 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:49,800 Speaker 1: do the light from stars get here if it's if 212 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: they're so far away in the universe is only six 213 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:55,440 Speaker 1: thousand years old, right, this night sky should be totally black. Um. 214 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:57,520 Speaker 1: And so they proposed that maybe the speed of light 215 00:10:57,559 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: was super duper fast a long time ago, so the 216 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: light sort of here and then it's slowed down and 217 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,080 Speaker 1: then you know, and then and that's the way the 218 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 1: light got here in such a short time. So, you know, 219 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 1: that seems kind of crazy to me, but that's one 220 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: motivation for imagining the speed of light might have been different. 221 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: And there are other ones that are, i mean, they're 222 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: still on the on the on the fringe, but they're 223 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:20,640 Speaker 1: not as fringees creation theory, and they have to do 224 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,440 Speaker 1: with the very early moments of the universe, the inflation, 225 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: because you know, we can look out into space and 226 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,079 Speaker 1: we can see the speed of light is basically unchanged 227 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: until the fairly early universe a few hundred thousand years 228 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: after the Big Bang, but before that is very hard 229 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 1: to see because the universe was trent, was not transparent 230 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: back then. And we have these questions about what happened 231 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:42,199 Speaker 1: the very early universe. And one of the theories is 232 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: called inflation and explains how the universe got so big 233 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:49,280 Speaker 1: so quickly, right and and and it's so smooth. And 234 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: one way that people explain that is that the universe 235 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: got really stretched out, the space itself got stretched out, 236 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: and that's called inflationary theory, says the universe expanded really 237 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 1: rapidly early on um. And but there are other ideas. 238 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: And one of those other ideas is that in the 239 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,680 Speaker 1: very first moments after the Big Bang, maybe the speed 240 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:11,320 Speaker 1: of light was much much faster, and that account for 241 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,240 Speaker 1: how things moved more quickly in the first few moments 242 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:17,480 Speaker 1: after the universe was born. Oh, I see, but you 243 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: don't need that if you have the expansion of space itself. Yeah, 244 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: Inflation is a much more comprehensive theory. Explains a lot 245 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: of things that's been tested much more rigorously. This is 246 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:29,600 Speaker 1: sort of a crazy idea people think about, and I 247 00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:32,840 Speaker 1: totally encourage crazy ideas. I mean, crazy thinking is what 248 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,720 Speaker 1: leads to breakthroughs, not every time, not every crazy theory 249 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 1: is the right theory. But you've got to allow for 250 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: people to think outside the scientific mainstream in order to 251 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: you know, sometimes generated crazy idea which turns out to 252 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:46,719 Speaker 1: be true. We've had revolutions in physics and those came 253 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 1: from crazy ideas. All right, So Sammy from New York, 254 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:53,240 Speaker 1: that's your answer. We know because we can see well 255 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 1: into the past, and we have theories that project well 256 00:12:55,559 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: into the past, and that that tells us that the 257 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: speed of light hasn't been changing. That's right with that, 258 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:16,559 Speaker 1: Let's take a break. Our next question comes from Ariel 259 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:20,000 Speaker 1: from Russia, and he had a question about, or more 260 00:13:20,080 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: like a suggestion about what we could do if there's 261 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 1: a big asteroid coming to kills All. Hi, Daniel and Jorge. 262 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: My name is Ariel. I want to ask you what 263 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 1: if instead of using a projectile launched from Earth to 264 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 1: intercept an incoming asteroid, we use an array of lasers 265 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: and blast asteroid without living Earth. Wow, a great suggestion. 266 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: I think Ariel just wants to build a huge laser 267 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: and point out in the space. Right. That is an 268 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: awesome question, um, and it's pretty wild. I wonder what 269 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:53,800 Speaker 1: he was doing when he thought of this question, he's 270 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: probably building a huge laser and preparing to point out 271 00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:00,640 Speaker 1: in his face right right. So the background year, of course, 272 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,560 Speaker 1: I mean, why would you want to shoot a laser 273 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:06,160 Speaker 1: at asteroids other than that sounds really fun, um. And 274 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:08,760 Speaker 1: the reason is that we did an episode about death 275 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,120 Speaker 1: from space or death from above, right, the danger from 276 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 1: killer rocks floating out in space, landing on Earth and 277 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: wiping us all out like the dinosaurs. And in that 278 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:20,240 Speaker 1: podcast we talked about what we could do if we 279 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: see one coming at us, and we talked about how 280 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: we can send rockets out there to kind of deflect 281 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: the asteroid or blow it up or try to break 282 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: it up. Right, that's right, um. And one of the 283 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,960 Speaker 1: challenges is finding the asteroid early, because the sooner you 284 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:36,280 Speaker 1: find it, the less you have to deflect it. Right, 285 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: If it's really far away, you can give it a 286 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: pretty tiny nudge, and by the time the asteroid gets 287 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,160 Speaker 1: to Earth, that tiny nudge is going to turn into 288 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: a big deviation in its path. If you only find 289 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: it like one second before it hits the atmosphere, then 290 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:51,200 Speaker 1: a tiny nudge is going to do nothing. So the 291 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: earlier you spotted, the smaller the nudge has to be. 292 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: And then one problem is, say you spot this asteroid. 293 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,000 Speaker 1: If you want to send up a nuclear weapon or 294 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: a gravity tractor or something to tug it off, course, 295 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: you have to get it up there and get it 296 00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: to the asteroid really fast, right, because every second counts. 297 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:11,440 Speaker 1: And so I think that's what motivated Arial's question. He's thinking, 298 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: let's get something there that travels at the speed of 299 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,880 Speaker 1: light like light, right, and using lasers, can we build 300 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: a death star? Can we turn the Earth into a 301 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: death star? You know, have the guys in the black 302 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:26,360 Speaker 1: helmets pull that lever, have the green laser shootout and 303 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:31,119 Speaker 1: destroyed the asteroid. That's right, this fully operational battle station exactly. 304 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: That's everybody's fantasy to pull that big lever. You know. 305 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,680 Speaker 1: I love pressing buttons and pulling levers, and the same 306 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 1: things happen, So that would be a lot of fun. Um. Well, 307 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: great question, Aril, and we didn't cover our podcast. You're right, 308 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:45,320 Speaker 1: and the reason is that it's a fairly new idea. 309 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: So there's a short answer to your question. Yes, it's 310 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: absolutely possible. People are working on it right now and 311 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:55,600 Speaker 1: they're developing this technoques. Yes, it's a grown ups working 312 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: on this. Yeah, there are grown ups building death rays 313 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 1: to shoot at rocks in space. That is somebody's job. 314 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 1: I mean people, if you work hard, if you study, 315 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:07,120 Speaker 1: you could get to work on that kind of question. 316 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: And there's a labit. You didn't realize that was an 317 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: alternate career path? Should build gine a death star lasers? No? 318 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:17,880 Speaker 1: I didn't know. Yeah, well you know my life would 319 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: have been so much different. Yeah, we should educate children 320 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:23,440 Speaker 1: about all of their options. Um, there's a labit you see, 321 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:26,760 Speaker 1: Santa Barbara that's working on exactly this. And the reason 322 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,040 Speaker 1: it's not one of the older ideas. You don't hear 323 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: about this when you read like books from the seventies 324 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,440 Speaker 1: or eighties about asteroids and asteroid deflections is that only 325 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: recently do we have lasers that are powerful enough to 326 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:39,480 Speaker 1: make this efficient. I mean, you've got to put a 327 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,280 Speaker 1: lot of energy into a laser if it's gonna blast 328 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 1: something super far away. Right, lasers are really focused, right, 329 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 1: the photons are almost parallel. But if you shoot a 330 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: beam of light, it's going to get wider and wider 331 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: and wider as it goes, which means less and less intense. Right, 332 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: For example, you can shine your flashlight at the Moon 333 00:16:57,800 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 1: and you can hit the moon no problem, right, because 334 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 1: by the time you're the beam from your flashlight gets 335 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: to the Moon, it's huge. It's wider than the moon. Right, 336 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: So the key one of one of the photons you 337 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: shoot is going to hit the moon, exactly. But the 338 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: idea behind laser asteroid deflection is that you want to 339 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: heat up a spot on the side of the asteroid, 340 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,800 Speaker 1: so it warms up to like three thousand degrees and 341 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:23,639 Speaker 1: then it's going to shoot off a jet of gas 342 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:26,840 Speaker 1: like molten rock and and gas coming out of the asteroid, 343 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,080 Speaker 1: which is going to act like a little rocket, pushing 344 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: it to the side. Right. So if you can heat 345 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: up one side of the asteroid, you basically can push 346 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:35,679 Speaker 1: it off course, so you would aim it to the 347 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: side of it, not directly at it. Yeah, I mean 348 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,679 Speaker 1: you're imagining like compu compue compute, Right, I'm shooting these 349 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: things out of the sky direct hit. We're like, We're like, 350 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,439 Speaker 1: but we don't have we don't have powerful enough to 351 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,080 Speaker 1: blow them up, right. The key is to heat it 352 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:53,639 Speaker 1: up on one side. So you're saying laser technology has 353 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,000 Speaker 1: been improving all these years and now we can actually 354 00:17:56,040 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: maybe build a death star rate. Yeah. Well, we can't 355 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: blow up planets, right, um, so we can't make disturbances 356 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,199 Speaker 1: in the force like the way you maybe imagining, but 357 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: we can shoot lasers at pretty far away objects and 358 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:13,159 Speaker 1: deposit significant energy. Um. And so the people have been 359 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,680 Speaker 1: doing studies and the best plan they have so far 360 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,280 Speaker 1: is to build a space based laser right. Right. You 361 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: don't want to shoot the lasers from the ground because 362 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:21,679 Speaker 1: then they got to go through the atmosphere and they 363 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: get defocused. So you have to have an orbiting platform 364 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,400 Speaker 1: of powerful lasers. Right. And if you're thinking laser gun, 365 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: if you're thinking, yeah, that's not going to be misused 366 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 1: by by some politicians space gun literally space gun? Yeah, 367 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:37,239 Speaker 1: I mean, do you want to build this and then 368 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,159 Speaker 1: put in the hands of the next president, whoever it's 369 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: going to be, you know, over of Jay Z or 370 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: Kid Rock or whoever is gonna be the next president. 371 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: Make sure you can't point it back, you know, like exactly, 372 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,080 Speaker 1: it only works you pointed away from the Earth. Anyway, 373 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: you gotta point it from space. You've gotta point it 374 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: at the asteroid and you gotta hit it, and you 375 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:57,160 Speaker 1: gotta cook it for a little while. I mean, because 376 00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:58,960 Speaker 1: by the time the laser gets there, it's going to 377 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,000 Speaker 1: be more diffuse, right, So you've got a deposit enough energy. 378 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,640 Speaker 1: So the studies that I read, they estimate that depending 379 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:07,879 Speaker 1: on the power of the laser, it could take between 380 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: a year and ten years to push the asteroid off 381 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: course for like a planet killer asteroid. Yeah, and so 382 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: that's a long time, which means you've got to see 383 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: this thing coming well in advance. And in our podcast 384 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:23,639 Speaker 1: we talked about how there isn't really a lot of 385 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 1: danger from asteroids in our Solar system because the biggest 386 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:27,840 Speaker 1: ones we've seen, we know where they are, we know 387 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,640 Speaker 1: they're not coming for us. The real danger is from 388 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: comets because they're big, they're fast, and we don't necessary 389 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,760 Speaker 1: we haven't necessarily seen their orbits, and we might just 390 00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:39,920 Speaker 1: have like less than a year of warning. And they're 391 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:41,960 Speaker 1: they're supposed to be made of ice, right, Yeah, they're 392 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,600 Speaker 1: there's like a huge snowball, right, and that would be 393 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: pretty dangerous and we have less than a year of warning, 394 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: so that that's not terribly optimistic, right. The other plan 395 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: is to launch the lasers and then send them to 396 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 1: the asteroids so they can get closer up and then 397 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: you can have smaller lasers. But you know, then you 398 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: have to spend time getting them to the asteroid, and 399 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 1: it gets pretty complicated where it's the laser itself. You 400 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 1: shoot it from Earth would get there the speed of light. 401 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: It would get there to the speed of light, but 402 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 1: it would be less intense, right, you need a more 403 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,520 Speaker 1: intense laser if you shoot it from further away. On 404 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:14,639 Speaker 1: the other hand, then you can have your space laser 405 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,119 Speaker 1: and you can use it for whatever you want. You know, 406 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,680 Speaker 1: you can write your name in corn fields a mile 407 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: long right in Europa, basically exactly. You could you could 408 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:28,400 Speaker 1: carve your face into um, you know, Mount Rushmore from space. Yeah, 409 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:30,480 Speaker 1: that would be pretty awesome. You could add another eye 410 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,920 Speaker 1: to the jupid jupid, make a smiley face or something. 411 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: That's right, you got the red dot and then you've 412 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,560 Speaker 1: got my dot. Yeah. You could change literally change the 413 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,160 Speaker 1: face of the Solar system. Yeah, so these are dangerous technologies. 414 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:45,480 Speaker 1: There are actual labs working on this idea, Yeah, exactly. 415 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:47,440 Speaker 1: There's uh. I think the leading one is that you 416 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:51,240 Speaker 1: see Santa Barbara and it's called the Directed Energy Planetary 417 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 1: Defense Lab. You couldn't just call it the laser gun Lab. 418 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: I think probably some students in there wanted to call 419 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: it the death Star Lab, but that was probably over 420 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: ruled by the puy you know. M hmmm, uh so 421 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: Ariel from Russia. The answer is yes, you could do that, 422 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:08,680 Speaker 1: and there are people working on it, and if you'd 423 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:10,240 Speaker 1: like to contribute, you just need to apply to the 424 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: physics program. But you see, Santa Barbara, this is a 425 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: perfect point to take a break. Okay, So our last 426 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: question in this episode comes from Russell. And Russell didn't 427 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:34,320 Speaker 1: say where he was from, which means we can guess 428 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: where he's from. Where do you think he's from? I 429 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:41,879 Speaker 1: think he's probably on an asteroid headed to Earth. How 430 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: about you? He's gonna guess, pig, but I like your 431 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: your answer. Um, okay, So Russell has a question about 432 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 1: the expanding universe. Hey, guys, my name is Russell and 433 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:54,439 Speaker 1: I really love the podcast and I've got a question 434 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: for you. If the universe is constantly expanding, where is 435 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: it expanding from? Does it have a center? Thanks? Guys, 436 00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: this is a great question. It's actually a common question 437 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: that we get. Yeah, but it's kind of tricky. I mean, 438 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: a long time to sort of get on my head 439 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:12,320 Speaker 1: around this concept. Right, Like the idea is that if 440 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:17,399 Speaker 1: everything is moving away, is growing, it's stretching, doesn't that 441 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,920 Speaker 1: mean that there's a point that is not growing or 442 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 1: moving do you know? Do you know what I mean? Like, 443 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: if you explode a grenade in space and you see 444 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: all the bits flying off, if you track the motion 445 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,520 Speaker 1: of all the bids, you could track down where all 446 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:31,479 Speaker 1: those bids came from, which is sort of like the 447 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: center of an explosion. And so if if somebody tells 448 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: you the universe exploding or it's expanding, isn't that doesn't 449 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,479 Speaker 1: that mean there's a point in the universe that is 450 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,639 Speaker 1: not growing or expanding. Yeah, in your grenade theory of 451 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: the universe, that would be correct. Yeah, So if the 452 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:48,440 Speaker 1: universe is a grenade, then there would be a center. 453 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,399 Speaker 1: But and this misconception comes from thinking about the origin 454 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:55,320 Speaker 1: of the universe the Big Bang as an explosion, right, 455 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: but it's not really an explosion in the sense that 456 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,440 Speaker 1: just matters is flying through space. It's also an explosion 457 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 1: of space. Right, Space itself is expanding, and it's expanding 458 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 1: everywhere at the same time. So it's like everything is 459 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,399 Speaker 1: exploding at the same time. So rather than thinking of 460 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:13,959 Speaker 1: it like an explosion, you should think of it like 461 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:18,239 Speaker 1: an infinite ruler. An infinite ruler suddenly starts to stretch right, 462 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,960 Speaker 1: and it's stretching everywhere all at once. Right, But isn't 463 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: doesn't the ruler have a center? If the ruler has 464 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:27,920 Speaker 1: a center of mass, like a point where you could 465 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,239 Speaker 1: balance it on your finger. Okay, So where is the 466 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: center of mass of an infinite ruler right in the middle? Right? 467 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: Where is the zo at every point? At every point 468 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,400 Speaker 1: you have an infinite amount of mass on both sides, right, 469 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: so it balances the same way everywhere. Yeah, but I guess, 470 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,400 Speaker 1: but you're assuming the universe is infinite. What if it's 471 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: not infinite, wouldn't that mean it has the center of mass? Right? Okay, 472 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: So let's break the answer into two different possibilities because 473 00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: they're very two very different answers. One is, let's assume 474 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: the universe is infinite, right, that beyond what we can see, 475 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,359 Speaker 1: it just goes on for ever. And in that model, 476 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 1: I think the most common scientific understanding is that the 477 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,399 Speaker 1: Big Bang happened everywhere same at the same time. Right. 478 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:09,840 Speaker 1: The Big Bang was not like at some location, you know, 479 00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,720 Speaker 1: corner or Fifth Avenue and Broadway, um, and then everything 480 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: expanded from there, but that it happened everywhere at the 481 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: same time. So there was a big bang over there's 482 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,520 Speaker 1: a big bang over here. It's all at the same time. 483 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:22,840 Speaker 1: And so you can think of it like you know, 484 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,280 Speaker 1: the surface of a balloon expanding. Right, there's no center 485 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:29,040 Speaker 1: to the surface. Every point on the on the surface 486 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 1: is expanding simultaneously, right, obviously the center to the balloon. 487 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: But here this is too d example, We're just thinking 488 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,320 Speaker 1: about the surface of the balloon, right, like everything came 489 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: from nothing everywhere. Yeah, well, what came before the Big Bang? 490 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,040 Speaker 1: That's a whole other question, right. But if you assume 491 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,880 Speaker 1: that somehow an infinite universe exists, right, and that then 492 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,159 Speaker 1: the Big Bang started, the Big Bang being just this 493 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,199 Speaker 1: expansion of space, the stretching of the very fabric of 494 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: space itself. Um, then that happened everywhere at the same time. 495 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,439 Speaker 1: There's no preferred location, And it's an important concept in 496 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: physics that everywhere in the universe is equally preferable to 497 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: everywhere else. Right, we're very democratic in physics when we 498 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:08,960 Speaker 1: think about space. We we don't like to think about 499 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:12,680 Speaker 1: any place being special, right, But like in a balloon, Um, 500 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: if I'm inflating the balloon, there's a point the part 501 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,120 Speaker 1: where I'm holding it and blowing error into it, that's 502 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,119 Speaker 1: the part that's not moving. That's true, You're right. I 503 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,000 Speaker 1: guess I was imagining a balloon without a without whore 504 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:28,840 Speaker 1: his lips on infinitely exactly. And you know, the universe 505 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:30,399 Speaker 1: doesn't have to be infinite for this to work. It 506 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,199 Speaker 1: just has to be sort of closed, right, Like we 507 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,919 Speaker 1: talked in our podcast about the size and the shape 508 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 1: of space. The universe could be infinite, but it could 509 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: also be wrapped around itself like a game of asteroids, 510 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: where you go off in one direction and you loop 511 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,720 Speaker 1: back around the other way without any discontinuity. And that's 512 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: the way, like the service of a balloon is, right, 513 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:49,239 Speaker 1: you walk along the service of a balloon. You can 514 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 1: do it forever and everyone ever. You just come back 515 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:54,040 Speaker 1: to where you started. There's no end. And in that 516 00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,880 Speaker 1: concept also there the big bang is not in any 517 00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:01,199 Speaker 1: particular place. It has no center, right, I see, like 518 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,160 Speaker 1: a balloon would have the center of the balloon. But 519 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,359 Speaker 1: you're saying like it's a kind of kind of a 520 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,879 Speaker 1: three D balloon. Yes, exactly. It's like a three D 521 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,879 Speaker 1: balloon where only be on the center of the balloon, 522 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,920 Speaker 1: and expanding balloon really doesn't have a center. Like if 523 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:16,840 Speaker 1: you're an ant walking on it, you'd be like, we're 524 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: the center. Yeah, exactly. Like on the surface of the Earth, 525 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:22,679 Speaker 1: there's no center to the surface. Right. Every place on 526 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: the surface of the Earth is the same relative to 527 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,199 Speaker 1: the Earth, right, it's the same radius and whatever. All right, 528 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,600 Speaker 1: So if it's infinite, then it could have no center, 529 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: yeah exactly. Um, but we don't know that, right, And 530 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,240 Speaker 1: that's the lovely part about questions about the universe is 531 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: that we know so little about these large contextual questions, 532 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: you know, like what have we seen about the universe? 533 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,239 Speaker 1: We've seen what's inside a sphere, a sphere that's big 534 00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: enough for light to have traveled from those things to 535 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,440 Speaker 1: us since the start of the universe. It's a little 536 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,439 Speaker 1: bit more complicated than just being the speed of light 537 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: times the age of the universe, because there's some actual 538 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,520 Speaker 1: stretching of space. But we can hand away that for now, 539 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: so we call that the observable universe, right, that's everything 540 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,400 Speaker 1: that we can see right. And what we don't know 541 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,240 Speaker 1: is what fraction of the universe is. That is that 542 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: most of the stuff in the universe. Is that one 543 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,880 Speaker 1: bajillions of the universe or is that basically one over infinity? 544 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,639 Speaker 1: Because the universe is infinite. So it's certainly possible that 545 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,520 Speaker 1: the universe is finite, that there's you know, at some 546 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,199 Speaker 1: point it runs out of stuff. Um, you know, space 547 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,720 Speaker 1: could be infinite and the stuff could be finite, right, Yeah, 548 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,159 Speaker 1: So there's all these possibilities. But um, there's basically like 549 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:33,679 Speaker 1: infinite or not infinite, right. And if it's not infinite, right, 550 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:35,520 Speaker 1: if there's a finite amount of stuff in the universe, 551 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,440 Speaker 1: well then we don't know where the center of that 552 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,680 Speaker 1: stuff is because we can't see all of it, right, 553 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,640 Speaker 1: So we have no way of knowing. Um. But if 554 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:45,399 Speaker 1: there is a fine amount of stuff in the universe, 555 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: and yes, it would have a center somewhere, right. Um. 556 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:49,679 Speaker 1: But the thing I love about that is that of 557 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: the observable universe, the center is you, right, you are 558 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:57,440 Speaker 1: literally at the center of your observable universe. I'm more 559 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 1: like in the center of my kids universe. It seems 560 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,800 Speaker 1: that's right. You just just a little orbiting moon right 561 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,440 Speaker 1: around there, some like egos Um. Yeah, but we all 562 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,480 Speaker 1: have different observable universes because our heads are in different places, 563 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,320 Speaker 1: and so we can all catch photons from the early universe. 564 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 1: It's slightly different times, and so like another alien species 565 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 1: would have their own observable universe that's a sphere around 566 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 1: their planet. So the short answers to the question is 567 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:26,960 Speaker 1: that we really just don't know. If the universe is infinite, 568 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: then it has no center. If it's finite, then we 569 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:31,560 Speaker 1: don't know that it is finite, and we can't see 570 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: enough of it to know, you know, what would the 571 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,760 Speaker 1: average location of all that stuff be. But there could 572 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: be a hypothetical center to the universe. I mean, if 573 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: it is finite, there could be a center to the universe. Yeah. 574 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,479 Speaker 1: Currently most of our models assume the space goes on forever, 575 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,560 Speaker 1: and everything we see agrees with that. I think if 576 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,600 Speaker 1: the universe was finite in the sense that it was, 577 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: the size of the universe was only a little bit 578 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,840 Speaker 1: bigger than the observable universe, so that what we're seeing 579 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,120 Speaker 1: is basically most of it. I think we would see 580 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: effects of that, you know. I think that the gravitational 581 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: forces would be tend towards one location or in one direction, right, 582 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,480 Speaker 1: rather than pulling things everywhere. And what we see now 583 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: is very homogeneous. We've never seen anything that prefers any 584 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,360 Speaker 1: one direction or any one location, and so the universe 585 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,600 Speaker 1: seems to prefer no direction and seems to prefer no location. 586 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,360 Speaker 1: So that suggests doesn't seem like we're orbiting around something. Yeah, 587 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: that suggests that things are either infinite or really really 588 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 1: big compared to what we can see. Right. Of course, 589 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,200 Speaker 1: we can't tell the difference between those two things. But 590 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,120 Speaker 1: if I had to place a bet, I would say 591 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:39,440 Speaker 1: the universe is most likely either infinite or huge jungu 592 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:45,320 Speaker 1: is compared to what we can see, huge, dude, Jungus. Yeah, exactly, 593 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,160 Speaker 1: ginormous compared to what we can see, which would be 594 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 1: for all practical purposes, would be infinite. And so from 595 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,520 Speaker 1: those from that perspective, uh, the universe wouldn't have any 596 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:58,680 Speaker 1: well defined center in either case. The fact that it's 597 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: it's space itself that's like spanning, means that you don't 598 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 1: need that sort of center of the grenade, Like, yeah, exactly, 599 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: everything's space itself is expanding. Literally, would sort of look 600 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: the same, whether we're here or we're in Andromeda, or 601 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: we're billions of lighters away, it would all just sort 602 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 1: of seem like it's expanding away from us. Yeah, exactly 603 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:19,440 Speaker 1: every point in the universe. It seems like everything is 604 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,800 Speaker 1: expanding away from you. So everybody feels like, hey, why 605 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: is everybody going away from me? And that makes me 606 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,960 Speaker 1: wonder about a little b about Russell's motivations, like why 607 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 1: is the center of the universe important? Like why do 608 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: we care? It's not like from a scientific point of view, 609 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily have any meaning, right, It's not like, 610 00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 1: you know, are we living at the center? Are we 611 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 1: in the best real estate in the universe or something? 612 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 1: Or maybe it's a question an attempt to understand, like 613 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,560 Speaker 1: the origin, like this special place. If there was a 614 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,240 Speaker 1: center to the universe, you could ask why they're right. 615 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: Imagine space is infinite, the matter is not that the 616 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: universe is like a finite blob of matter that exploded 617 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 1: in space at some point fourteen billion years ago. Then 618 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: you could ask this question, why that spot and not 619 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: a billion light years to the left or billion light 620 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:05,760 Speaker 1: years to the right, And that would be an interesting question, 621 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,240 Speaker 1: would be just include that there's something that happened here 622 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: and not somewhere else. So if space did have a center, 623 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:13,600 Speaker 1: then you can ask interesting questions about it. Right. I 624 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: thought you were going to say that the reason Russell 625 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: was wondering what everything is moving away from him was 626 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 1: that he needed some dating advice. You've gotta be nice 627 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: to our listeners, for here, they are the reason we 628 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,200 Speaker 1: get to keep doing this, right, Russell, They're going away 629 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,040 Speaker 1: from you because they're also intimidated by your good looks 630 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,720 Speaker 1: and charisma. That's what's going on in your ability to 631 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 1: ask great questions. Seriously awesome question, Russell. Thank you very much, 632 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:47,800 Speaker 1: and your tasting podcasts and your tasting podcast is exquisite. Alright, 633 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 1: those were all super great questions. And I think you know, 634 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: it just kind of generally points to the curiosity of people, 635 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: you know, just like you listen to this podcast like 636 00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: this one, or watching the Science Show and you just 637 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,160 Speaker 1: you can't help but have questions, deep questions about the universe. 638 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: That's right, and we are here to talk about them, 639 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: and we don't always have the answers. But sometimes it's 640 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: even more fun when we don't know what the answer 641 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 1: is and we can talk about all the crazy possibilities. 642 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: So please don't hold back. If you are listening to 643 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:15,800 Speaker 1: this podcast and you have a question you want us 644 00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,400 Speaker 1: to talk about, send it to us at questions at 645 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,480 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge dot com. And if you need dating advice, 646 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: just write as a dating at Daniel and Jorge dot 647 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,320 Speaker 1: com or just shouted at your window late at night 648 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:31,480 Speaker 1: and Jorge will eventually hear it. Or just build the 649 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,479 Speaker 1: death star and write it on the surface of the moon. 650 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: We'll we'll, definitely. I do not endorse that advice, by 651 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: the way, that is purely from rhead. I'm gonna have 652 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,240 Speaker 1: my lawyers cleared me from liability from your moon moon 653 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:48,959 Speaker 1: vandalism suggestion. There we need we need to disclaimer at 654 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: the end, you know, like movies have disclaimers. Yeah, please 655 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: sign this way. This is a work of fiction. None 656 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 1: of the opinions podcast. We can't say it's the work 657 00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 1: of fiction. I'm supposed to be talking about things that 658 00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: are real. None, none of the opinions expressed by the 659 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 1: cartoon is should be taken seriously. I'm sorry. By listening 660 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,000 Speaker 1: to this podcast, you accept responsibility for all of your actions, 661 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,440 Speaker 1: even if we suggested them. All right, Thanks everybody for listening. 662 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,920 Speaker 1: Please don't go out and vandalize cosmic features of our 663 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 1: solar system and ruin them for everybody, and keep asking questions. 664 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,160 Speaker 1: That's right, See you next time, See you next time. 665 00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:30,120 Speaker 1: If you still have a question after listening to all 666 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 1: these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to 667 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: hear from you. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, 668 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 1: and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge that's one word, or 669 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 1: email us at Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com.