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New Theories / Olber's Paradox
« on: 06/04/2024 03:48:31 »
Olber′s paradox states that the sky is not uniformly bright although it contains, to all intents and purposes, an infinite number of stars. In other words going strictly by the facts, the night sky should be as bright as day, the paradox lies in the fact that this is not the case. But does the present day explanation that Olber′s paradox exists because the Universe is expanding and that light from distant stars has not yet reached us, make sense?
Imagine walking on a moor on a moonless night, the power is out and only candles are available. Everything around is in darkness, even the path is very indistinct. Suddenly, as you look up you see the light from a candle. There are several weird things about this light, (1) the first is that only the candle flame is visible nothing around it is visible, the reflected light from objects close to the candle cannot be seen (2) if you take a step back the light from the candle disappears, it is no longer visible. What is happening? The first question to ask is: Why does the light disappear? Obviously, the answer is that there is not enough intensity in the candle light to travel further, the light from the candle can travel so far and only so far before its intensity becomes too low to detect. The question is why; power is still available, the candle is still burning, obviously enough tallow and wick is present to keep the candle burning, why then does the light stop at the precise boundary that you have perceived? How is it that given the fact that the light follows the inverse square law as it travels, meaning that it spreads out directly according to the square of the distance travelled (isotropic light), that only the candle is visible, nothing around your immediate surroundings is made visible by the light from the candle. Why? Surely, if light spreads out according to the direct square of the distance travelled, some small portion of the surroundings should be illuminated? But this is not the case, the light seems to be visible as a point of brightness and nothing more. What is happening? For anyone, standing on the circumference of the place where you are standing, and with the candle at the centre, the candle flame is clearly visible, but nothing else? Could this have anything to do with the rectilinear nature of light? Numerous experiments have shown that the energy of the photons detected on the circumference that the light covers all have the same energy and therefore intensity. One thought that comes to mind is that light varies not only in frequency but in intensity and in this particular instance, only the most intense light makes it your location.
Surely, this is a far more cogent explanation for Olber′s paradox than to think that the Universe is expanding so rapidly and so fast that the light from distant stars never reaches us? Namely, that for a given amount of power, light travels a given distance, it cannot go any further than that power allows. Increase the power and increase the distance over which light is detectable, keep the power at a fixed level and it doesn′t matter for how long that light is on, it cannot travel one iota further than the power supplied to it allows.
Imagine walking on a moor on a moonless night, the power is out and only candles are available. Everything around is in darkness, even the path is very indistinct. Suddenly, as you look up you see the light from a candle. There are several weird things about this light, (1) the first is that only the candle flame is visible nothing around it is visible, the reflected light from objects close to the candle cannot be seen (2) if you take a step back the light from the candle disappears, it is no longer visible. What is happening? The first question to ask is: Why does the light disappear? Obviously, the answer is that there is not enough intensity in the candle light to travel further, the light from the candle can travel so far and only so far before its intensity becomes too low to detect. The question is why; power is still available, the candle is still burning, obviously enough tallow and wick is present to keep the candle burning, why then does the light stop at the precise boundary that you have perceived? How is it that given the fact that the light follows the inverse square law as it travels, meaning that it spreads out directly according to the square of the distance travelled (isotropic light), that only the candle is visible, nothing around your immediate surroundings is made visible by the light from the candle. Why? Surely, if light spreads out according to the direct square of the distance travelled, some small portion of the surroundings should be illuminated? But this is not the case, the light seems to be visible as a point of brightness and nothing more. What is happening? For anyone, standing on the circumference of the place where you are standing, and with the candle at the centre, the candle flame is clearly visible, but nothing else? Could this have anything to do with the rectilinear nature of light? Numerous experiments have shown that the energy of the photons detected on the circumference that the light covers all have the same energy and therefore intensity. One thought that comes to mind is that light varies not only in frequency but in intensity and in this particular instance, only the most intense light makes it your location.
Surely, this is a far more cogent explanation for Olber′s paradox than to think that the Universe is expanding so rapidly and so fast that the light from distant stars never reaches us? Namely, that for a given amount of power, light travels a given distance, it cannot go any further than that power allows. Increase the power and increase the distance over which light is detectable, keep the power at a fixed level and it doesn′t matter for how long that light is on, it cannot travel one iota further than the power supplied to it allows.