Little help?

[Guest TheSalesman]

Ok, I am by no means an intellect in science. I completely suck at it. Actually I did well in geology. Anyway, I was hoping one of you guys can clear up some misconceptions I might have. Please try not to get to technical; I am a Film major, so this stuff isn't my field of expertise...In fact I think it’s my mortal enemy.

 

Ok from what I know, when the big bang occurred matter expanded outwards in all directions. Soon this matter collected and the stars/planets where born. Now today we can look at a star/planet and based on the color the wavelengths emits (blue and red shift) we can determine how old it is.

 

Now am I right so far? With the use of blue and red shift can we determine how old a planet/star is?

 

So if this is so, we can look at a star/planet and determine if it is older or younger than earth. Based on this information could we not pinpoint the approximate location where the big bang occurred? So in a sense we know where the universe began?

 

Thanks,

The Confused Salesman

[Asimov Pupil]

Ok' date=' I am by no means an intellect in science. I completely suck at it. Actually I did well in geology. Anyway, I was hoping one of you guys can clear up some misconceptions I might have. Please try not to get to technical; I am a Film major, so this stuff isn't my field of expertise...In fact I think it’s my mortal enemy.

 

Ok from what I know, when the big bang occurred matter expanded outwards in all directions. Soon this matter collected and the stars/planets where born. Now today we can look at a star/planet and based on the color the wavelengths emits (blue and red shift) we can determine how old it is.

 

Now am I right so far? With the use of blue and red shift can we determine how old a planet/star is?

 

So if this is so, we can look at a star/planet and determine if it is older or younger than earth. Based on this information could we not pinpoint the approximate location where the big bang occurred? So in a sense we know where the universe began?

 

Thanks,

The Confused Salesman [/quote']

 

 

first the red shift doesnt tell you how old it is. it tells you if it is moving away from you (red) and from that you can calculate how far it is away.

 

this way you can tell where they are going. then reverse the direction of all the galaxies and you get the point where the big bang occured

[Asimov Pupil]

an analogy to the red/blue shift is the doppler effect for sound.

 

If it comes towards you it's higher pitched and the opposite holds true

 

i know this isn't what happens with light but it's just an analogy.

[nomadd22]

Distant galaxies aren't moving away from us because they were thrown out by an explosion. They're receding because the space in between is expanding. No matter where in the universe you looked from, everything would be receding from you . The universe can be finite, but not have boundries.

[C3H5(NO3)3]

yeah, let's use the "Rasin Muffin" model, again.

 

imagine you are a raisin in the middle of a muffin being baked, the raisins near the outside of the muffin will appear to be moving away at a faster pace, since they are simply farther away....when in reality everything is moving at the same pace...

 

Red shift only tells us how far and fast tjhey are moving away from us, and what the star is composed of...

[danny8522003]

The Big Bang did not happen at a single point in the universe, it happened everywhere in the universe at once. Therefore, there is no way we can pinpoint the location of the Big Bang relative to this universe. The only way we could even begin to imagine where it took place would be to view the universe from the outside of it. Needless to say that would be impossible.