The Universe Expands

The Universe begins about 13.8 billion years ago (That is 13,800,000,000 years ago).  The event that starts the Universe is typically referred to as “The Big Bang.”  Actually, that term was initially used in derision by an astronomer who opposed the theory. 

We live on the surface of the Earth in a nearly constant gravitational field and we travel at very modest speeds.  Our intuitive view of the way the world works has developed in that environment.  And Isaac Newton’s classical physics is consistent with our intuitive sense of the world.  However, Albert Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity, as well as quantum mechanics, have revealed a Universe that defies the “common sense logic” that derives from our day-to-day experience.

What astrophysicists tell us is not easy to understand from the point of view of our experience.  That is, the Universe did not expand into the empty space that surrounded it.  Rather, space-time itself began to expand.

Intuition has been countermanded.
Though in no way are we reprimanded.
There was no empty space
Into which things could race.
It was spacetime itself that expanded.

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