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The Early Universe Was Like Chocolate Syrup?

posted by Dopefish on Monday February 24 2014, @12:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the my-stomach-is-too-small-to-eat-all-that dept.

Covalent writes "Scientists suggest that the early universe could be better understood by considering its viscosity which, as it turns out, was similar to that of chocolate syrup. Researchers claim to be able to use this approach (along with as yet unavailable measurements) to determine precisely how inflation took place in the instants after the Big Bang.

Green cheese, the Milky Way... Now chocolate syrup. The universe is a complicated but delicious place!"

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Covalent on Monday February 24 2014, @02:03PM

    by Covalent (43) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:03PM (#5805) Journal
    I don't usually reply to the ACs, but it's SN now, so maybe it's time for a new paradigm.

    1. The authors of the article compared the early universe's viscosity to that of chocolate syrup for a reason: The units of that viscosity (Pascal*seconds) are not exactly widely known and understood. I'm a chemistry professor and I had to look them up...so lighten up with the food references. Which brings me to point 2:

    2. I included the green cheese and Milky Way as a bit of a joke (not saying it was funny, but still). We compare complex scientific concepts and processes to simple ones (see the numerous car analogies) to make things more comprehensible to everyone. I use the whole "moon of green cheese" thing when I teach about density. The moon cannot be made of green cheese: simple math will show how dense the moon is, and how dense cheeses are, and prove that the one cannot be made of the other.

    3. Why not rail against the "my-stomach-is-too-small-to-eat-all-that dept." joke in the header? I mean, seriously, how would it even make sense to eat the whole early universe? </sarcasm>
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    You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @02:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @02:43PM (#5824)

    (Different AC here)

    I don't usually reply to the ACs, but it's SN now, so maybe it's time for a new paradigm.

    Actually, the paradigm was already wrong on /. — you should post whenever you think your answer might benefit other readers, even if you suspect the OP might never read it.

    And BTW, I also have an account on SN, but I use it only from my own computer.