A recent scholarly paper by Richard Price asks, “In an expanding universe, what doesn’t expand?“
The expansion of the universe is often viewed as a uniform stretching of space that would affect compact objects, atoms and stars, as well as the separation of galaxies. One usually hears that bound systems do not take part in the general expansion, but a much more subtle question is whether bound systems expand partially. In this paper, a very definitive answer is given…
If parts of the universe grew, but others didn’t, here are my nominations…
- Let parking lots stretch while our cars all remain the same size.
- Let space inside airplanes get bigger while bodies stay constant.
- Let people get taller without anyone getting fatter.
Sadly,Price’s research has not yet stretched (sorry) much beyond models of classical atoms.
And real-life observation suggests opposite effects for every single one of my hopeful wishes….
Thanks to Tingilinde for the link!