Asri-unix.939 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:sri-unix!KING@KESTREL Wed Mar 10 08:32:29 1982 anisotropic monobloc radiation Consider the following thought experiment: Construct a transparent [crystal?] sphere a parsec or so in diameter, and a few meters outside that another sphere, painted black on the inside, whose temperature is 3 deg. K. At or near the center of the sphere place a measuring apparatus which is moving with some speed relative to the transparent and black spheres. Observe the deviation in the radiation field caused by the Doppler shift. Now remove the black sphere and set the transparent sphere into motion so it feels isotropic radiation from the Big Bang. Since the radiation field on the surface of the transparent sphere is the same in this experiment as it was before, the motion of the measuring apparatus has the same effect on the anisotropy of the radiation as it would have had the black sphere been there. It is thus an easy matter to measure our absolute motion. We are actually measuring our motion relative to the part of the monobloc that occupied our position in the universe in the olden days. I believe, by the way, that if I took two spaceships tied together by a very long (1 megaparsec might be enough) piece of string, that the string would be under constant tension. The galazies aren't receding - there keeps on coming to be more space in between us and the nearest galaxy. This means that another galaxy with respect to which we have no red/blue shift would have a different anisotropy in its monobloc radiation measurement. I haven't quite worked out the paradox yet, but I think that if my 1 parsec black sphere were, instead, a megaparsec or so in diameter it would matter which wall we were closer to. Comments? ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.