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Is cosmological time a constant?
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Is cosmological time a constant?
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MikeS
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The Devils Advocate
Is cosmological time a constant?
«
on:
19/08/2011 10:54:01 »
This is in answer to a question raised in this post.
In order to explain what we see of redshift, we would need to explain why time dilation occurred at all in the past and why the degree of time dilation changed first in one direction and then in another direction over cosmological time.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=39707.msg365368#msg365368
As I have said elsewhere in these posts, I believe the amount of time dilation/contraction to be essentially the amount of energy in the universe divided by its mass. In other word the higher the energy/mass ratio, the faster clocks tick.
1) At and just after the big bang there was only energy and no matter. The passage of time was essentially infinite in both directions at once. (Or, time [as we know it] did not exist and everything happened at once. Causality did not exist.)
2) As the universe started to cool and atoms form matter gave time an arrow and a direction to that arrow.
3) As the universe cooled further much of the energy was converted into simple atoms. The universe went from energy dominated to matter dominated. The passage of time went from near infinite to slow.
4) When stars first formed, they started to convert mass into energy, continually feeding the universe with energy throughout its star burning phase. As the energy/mass ratio steadily increases so clocks run faster. (This being the stage we are in now)
5) Ultimately the universe will run out of useable fuel and through entropy clocks will slow down.
The above looks at various stages in the universes development from the time dilation/contraction aspect. Let’s couple to that expansion.
1a) Expansion is essentially infinite. (Inflation)
2a) Inflation rolls off turning into a more sedate expansion.
3a) Inflation rolls off turning into a more sedate expansion.
4a) Expansion continues and possibly accelerates (depending upon the energy/mass density)
5a) Either, expansion continues or gravity takes over. (I favor gravity)
When we ask how old is the Universe? Is this a meaningful question if the passage of time is variable? It's like measuring length with a piece of elastic.
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