Class #18 (Mar. 6 ... now: Mar. 18) Reading Questions - The Fabric of the Cosmos

Chapter 8

1. What is meant by the statement "Symmetry underlies the laws of the universe"?

2. According to Hubble, distant galaxies are moving away from our galaxy with speeds proportional to their distance. According to Einstein, clocks in relative motion through space run at different rates. Given these two facts, how does Greene argue that clocks in distant galaxies, in fact, run at the same rate as clocks is our galaxy?

3. If all of space is expanding, does that mean that the Milky Way and our solar system and our earth and we ourselves are also expanding?

4. How does our view of the big bang differ for the cases of a finite versus an infinite flat space model for the universe?

Your Question: Please give a well formulated question that you have regarding the material covered in this reading assignment.