Ultimate fate of the universe The ultimate fate of the universe is a topic in physical cosmology. Many possible fates are predicted by rival scientific theories, including futures of both finite and infinite duration. Once the notion that the universe started with a rapid inflation nicknamed the Big Bang became accepted by the majority of scientists,[1] the ultimate fate of the universe became a valid cosmological question, one depending upon the physical properties of the mass/energy in the universe, its average density, and the rate of expansion. There is a growing consensus among cosmologists that the universe is flat and will continue to expand forever.[2][3] The ultimate fate of the universe is dependent on the shape of the universe and what role dark energy will play as the universe ages. Emerging scientific basis[edit] Theory[edit] The theoretical scientific exploration of the ultimate fate of the universe became possible with Albert Einstein's 1916 theory of general relativity. Observation[edit] Big Rip[edit]
The Brane multiverse The Inflationary universe Drake equation The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The equation was written in 1961 by Frank Drake not for purposes of quantifying the number of civilizations,[1] but intended as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at the world's first SETI meeting, in Green Bank, West Virginia. The equation summarizes the main concepts which scientists must contemplate when considering the question of other radio-communicative life.[1] The Drake equation has proved controversial since several of its factors are currently unknown, and estimates of their values span a very wide range. History[edit] In September 1959, physicists Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article in the journal Nature with the provocative title "Searching for Interstellar Communications Soon thereafter, Drake hosted a "search for extraterrestrial intelligence" meeting on detecting their radio signals. where: and
The quilted universe Eternal inflation Eternal inflation is predicted by many different models of cosmic inflation. MIT professor Alan H. Guth proposed an inflation model involving a "false vacuum" phase with positive vacuum energy. Parts of the Universe in that phase inflate, and only occasionally decay to lower-energy, non-inflating phases or the ground state. In chaotic inflation, proposed by physicist Andrei Linde, the peaks in the evolution of a scalar field (determining the energy of the vacuum) correspond to regions of rapid inflation which dominate. Alan Guth's 2007 paper, "Eternal inflation and its implications",[1] details what is now known on the subject, and demonstrates that this particular flavor of inflationary universe theory is relatively current, or is still considered viable, more than 20 years after its inception.[2] [3][4] Inflation and the multiverse[edit] Both Linde and Guth believe that inflationary models of the early universe most likely lead to a multiverse but more proof is required. History[edit]
Dark flow The researchers had suggested that the motion may be a remnant of the influence of no-longer-visible regions of the universe prior to inflation. Telescopes cannot see events earlier than about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe became transparent (the Cosmic Microwave Background); this corresponds to the particle horizon at a distance of about 46 billion (4.6×1010) light years. Since the matter causing the net motion in this proposal is outside this range, it would in a certain sense be outside our visible universe; however, it would still be in our past light cone. The results appeared in the October 20, 2008, issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.[2][3][4][5][non-primary source needed] Since then, the authors have extended their analysis to additional clusters and the recently released WMAP five-year data. Location[edit] The dark flow. Criticisms[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
The Cyclic multiverse Four-dimensional space In modern physics, space and time are unified in a four-dimensional Minkowski continuum called spacetime, whose metric treats the time dimension differently from the three spatial dimensions (see below for the definition of the Minkowski metric/pairing). Spacetime is not a Euclidean space. History[edit] An arithmetic of four dimensions called quaternions was defined by William Rowan Hamilton in 1843. This associative algebra was the source of the science of vector analysis in three dimensions as recounted in A History of Vector Analysis. Soon after tessarines and coquaternions were introduced as other four-dimensional algebras over R. One of the first major expositors of the fourth dimension was Charles Howard Hinton, starting in 1880 with his essay What is the Fourth Dimension? Little, if anything, is gained by representing the fourth Euclidean dimension as time. Vectors[edit] This can be written in terms of the four standard basis vectors (e1, e2, e3, e4), given by Geometry[edit]
Will the solar system planets align on December 21, 2012? | Human World No, the planets of the solar system are not aligned at the solstice on December 21, 2012. The diagram below shows the positions of all the solar system planets (and the dwarf planet Pluto) at the instant of the December 2012 solstice (2012 December 21 at 11:12 UTC ). Positions of the planets on December 21, 2012 Find out which symbols represent which planets here. Look for yourself. Should you ever want to know the positions of the planets at the drop of the hat, click here or here . By the way, the above diagram shows the planetary positions from the direction north of the ecliptic – Earth’s orbital plane. Perhaps you’ve seen images such as the one below. This portrayal of the solar system gives the relative sizes of the sun and planets, and the order of the planets (and dwarf planets) going outward from the sun. The so-called planetary alignment associated with December 2012 solstice is only one of numerous fraudulent claims made by pseudoscientific doomsday prognosticators.
Simulated reality Simulated reality is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation. This is quite different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of actuality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. There has been much debate over this topic, ranging from philosophical discourse to practical applications in computing. Types of simulation[edit] Brain-computer interface[edit] Virtual people[edit] In a virtual-people simulation, every inhabitant is a native of the simulated world. Arguments[edit] Simulation argument[edit] 1. 2. 3. In greater detail, Bostrom is attempting to prove a tripartite disjunction, that at least one of these propositions must be true. Relativity of reality[edit]
Convex regular polychoron The tesseract is one of 6 convex regular polychora In mathematics, a convex regular polychoron is a polychoron (4-polytope) that is both regular and convex. These are the four-dimensional analogs of the Platonic solids (in three dimensions) and the regular polygons (in two dimensions). These polychora were first described by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli in the mid-19th century. Schläfli discovered that there are precisely six such figures. Properties[edit] Since the boundaries of each of these figures is topologically equivalent to a 3-sphere, whose Euler characteristic is zero, we have the 4-dimensional analog of Euler's polyhedral formula: where Nk denotes the number of k-faces in the polytope (a vertex is a 0-face, an edge is a 1-face, etc.). Visualizations[edit] The following table shows some 2-dimensional projections of these polychora. See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
Fourth dimension in art An illustration from Jouffret's Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions. The book, which influenced Picasso, was given to him by Princet. New possibilities opened up by the concept of four-dimensional space (and difficulties involved in trying to visualize it) helped inspire many modern artists in the first half of the twentieth century. Early Cubists, Surrealists, Futurists, and abstract artists took ideas from higher-dimensional mathematics and used them to radically advance their work.[1] Early influence[edit] Dalí's 1954 painting Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) Princet introduced Picasso to Esprit Jouffret's Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions (Elementary Treatise on the Geometry of Four Dimensions, 1903),[4] a popularization of Poincaré's Science and Hypothesis in which Jouffret described hypercubes and other complex polyhedra in four dimensions and projected them onto the two-dimensional page. Dimensionist Manifesto[edit] 1. Abstract art[edit] See also[edit]
Quaternion Graphical representation of quaternion units product as 90°-rotation in 4D-space, ij = k, ji = −k, ij = −ji History[edit] Quaternion plaque on Brougham (Broom) Bridge, Dublin, which says: Here as he walked by on the 16th of October 1843 Sir William Rowan Hamilton in a flash of genius discovered the fundamental formula for quaternion multiplicationi2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = −1 & cut it on a stone of this bridge Quaternion algebra was introduced by Hamilton in 1843.[7] Important precursors to this work included Euler's four-square identity (1748) and Olinde Rodrigues' parameterization of general rotations by four parameters (1840), but neither of these writers treated the four-parameter rotations as an algebra.[8][9] Carl Friedrich Gauss had also discovered quaternions in 1819, but this work was not published until 1900.[10][11] i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = −1, into the stone of Brougham Bridge as he paused on it. On the following day, Hamilton wrote a letter to his friend and fellow mathematician, John T.