Re: Expansion and balloon analogy

From: Ben Rudiak-Gould <br276deleteme@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:44:10 +0000

Tom Roberts wrote:

Classical physics has the problem that it is scale independent. That is, there is nothing in the equations to determine any length or time scale uniquely. In a purely classical world you could not tell if we are expanding or not.

I don't understand this statement. Of course in classical physics there's no explanation of why, say, the earth doesn't gravitationally collapse beyond a particular size. But the universe isn't classical. If the universe were classical, then there would perforce be some classical explanation for the earth's size, and that explanation, whatever it was, would set a length scale. Arguing that classical physics can't be correct because it doesn't set a length scale is begging the question.

-- Ben
.

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