Bravus, what can you tell me about this? Apparently if you can prove this you can prove the existance of God.

There is a website you can visit at: Theory of Everything

Is it real or hokey? I can't make my way through it

A TOE (Theory of Everything) is really at this stage just a concept. It's related to the idea of a Grand Unified Theory (GUT). The notion is to find a theory that connects gravity with the other three forces of the universe. There are already quantum theories that link the strong and weak nuclear forces and the electromagnetic forces, as I understand it, but they do not also explain gravitational force.

Not sure how such a theory, if empirically supported (scientists don't talk about theories being 'proved'), would impact on the existence of God...

Still reading the site.

Heh, his maths and physics go beyond my ken very early in the piece. ;)

As I understand it he is positing that the rate of expansion of the universe is accelerating, that therefore space-time itself is exapnding at an accelerating rate, and that this means the speed of light is also increasing.

Edit for clarity (maybe): In General Relativity, space and time are not separate, but are part of one four-dimensional (! - three dimensions of space - up, sideways and away - plus one of time) continuum. So if space is expanding it does odd things to time. And since speed is distance divided by time, it does odd things to speeds, including the speed of light.

He claims that by modifying the ways in which we calculate quantities to take this expansion into account, a Theory of Everything (that does the jobs described above) can be developed, one that is empirically testable based on predictions it makes about actual observable measurements.

I don't have the physics to judge the value (or even coherence) of his claims... but if he can indeed produce a TOE he'll be a Nobel prize candidate in a few years.

I should note that his 'changing speed of light' doesn't provide a lot of consolation for recent creationists, since he estimates the age of the universe at just under 13 billion years.

Thanks! (I think, as I read your post again with my head turned sideways)

Hehe, OK, just saw the little stars guy! Making it simpler:

There are four kinds of forces in the universe. One is gravity, and most of us feel like we have a fairly good understanding of that. (It's a little more complicated in General Relativity, but...) One is the electromagnetic force: what makes your skirt cling to your stockings! Or hair stick to a balloon on a dry day. Then there are two forces that act only over very tiny distances, inside the nuclei of atoms - the strong and weak nuclear forces. They explain why atoms stick together at all - the nucleus is made of only positive and neutral charges, so using just the electromagnetic force we would expect it to fly apart - and also explain things like radioactive decay.

Hope that helps a little. Einstein spent most of the last half of his life looking for a GUT, unsuccessfully.

You're so smart!!!

Aw shucks <--- with a little less lipstick

Absolutely preposterous.



IOW as an object accelerates, time slows down. We do not recognize this in things we deal with, because the difference is so tiny. Also, volume decreases while mass increases. As for the speed of light, that, old chap, is a constant. It is the one thing that does not change.

Ahh, I should add one more point of interest. According to Herr Einstein, if an object were to continue to accelerate to the speed of light, its mass would become infinite, its volume would shrink to nothingness, and time would stop!

I am not that up on the current understanding of quantum mechanics to know how THAT would affect the general theory of relativity. Been a few years. Any thoughts, professor?

Dave