Today, October 23, is a good day to celebrate the birth of the universe. The question is just how many candles do we need for the cake?
There are some competing theories about the age of the universe. One is based upon observations of, well, the universe.
Scientists have been studying the cosmic background radiation that permeates the universe in every direction and is a remnant of an explosion so large it created all space, time and matter that can be detected either directly or indirectly. Physicists have run the numbers to figure out just how hot that explosion was and have then figured out how long it would take to cool down to the temperature that we now see in this background radiation.
Astronomers have also managed to run tests using observations which show the universe is expanding away in all directions, and even still is accelerating, being pushed outward by a dark energy which can’t be seen directly, but which must exist to cause such an acceleration. The cool thing is that such an energy was predicted in the standard model of physics. When the scientists work backwards and calculate how long such an expansion has been going on for, they end up with a dating method for creation.
The age of the universe, as determined by looking at the universe, is approximately 13,750,000,000 years, give or take 170,000,000 years. With better instruments, scientists have been narrowing down the uncertainty in that estimate.
As PZ Myers reminded me this morning, the main competing theory to the age of the universe is not based upon looking at the universe, but instead confines all of its calculations to a single book written by nomadic sheep herders thousands of years ago. The great advantage to this method of dating (as calculated by James Ussher, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland) is it’s accuracy. There is no give-or-take uncertainty using this method. He just took the current date and used the power of subtraction to work his way back through the events in that book to the moment the book says everything was created.
His answer was 23 October, 4004 BCE, 6013 years ago today.
There is no need to develop more accurate instruments to help narrow down the calculations since there are no observations of the universe involved using this method. Cool! As long as you never allow your eyes to waver away from the single book and actually look at the thing you are trying to date, all is well.
I won’t tell you which method I place my trust in since I wouldn’t want to influence your analysis in any way.
So go out, buy a cake, and celebrate the birth of the universe today! I certainly will. I should warn you, though, that if you are anywhere near Chicago you probably won’t be able to get your hands on any candles. I plan on buying a lot of them.
In an unrelated news story, Chicago area fire departments and MABAS were called to a massive blaze where some moron tried to light an enormous amount of candles all at once. Fire department officials, who measured the intensity of the blaze, and weighed the wax residue after it was extinguished, estimate that there were approximately 13.75 billion candles involved in the conflagration, give or take .17 billion candles.
The idiot who started the blaze, though, disputes this. He pointed to an ancient Roman etiquette book which stated that the maximum number of candles allowed in any celebration is 6013, thus there couldn’t have been more candles than that. On the basis of that evidence, all charges have been dropped.
Film at 11.