pugh@topaz.ARPA (08/03/85)
From: "pugh jon%b.mfenet"@LLL-MFE.ARPA It is my firm belief that all the energy expended in the Big Bang has been stored away as gravitational potential and it will all be converted back into kinetic energy just before the next Big Bang. There is no other way, if the universe is a closed system like Albert says. Jon
mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (08/05/85)
In article <3063@topaz.ARPA> pugh@topaz.ARPA writes: >It is my firm belief that all the energy expended in the Big Bang has been >stored away as gravitational potential and it will all be converted back into >kinetic energy just before the next Big Bang. There is no other way, if the >universe is a closed system like Albert says. Don't forget the background radiation. C Wingate
Alfke.PASA@Xerox.ARPA (08/07/85)
From: Peter Alfke <Alfke.pasa@Xerox.ARPA> Jon Pugh writes: >It is my firm belief that all the energy expended in the Big Bang >has been stored away as gravitational potential and it will all be >converted back into kinetic energy just before the next Big Bang. >There is no other way, if the universe is a closed system like >Albert says. Not necessarily. Remember "escape velocity"? If the mass of the universe isn't great enough, it may still have too much kinetic energy to collapse again; in other words, everything has escape velocity from the center of mass of the universe (the big bang point). The universe is a closed system, an idea far older than Einstein, but that doesn't mean that it has to repeat itself. Indeed, such a repetition has disturbing thermodynamic consequences (where'd all the entropy go?). There are no easy answers to the question of what will happen to the universe. Astronomers are still fairly divided in their opinions. --Peter Alfke
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/12/85)
> that doesn't mean that it has to repeat itself. Indeed, such a > repetition has disturbing thermodynamic consequences (where'd all the > entropy go?). Last I heard entropy wasn't an integral part of the universe, just something we've observed in our local neighborhood. -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076