• Question: What is your outtake on olbers paradox?

    Asked by ramanfoh to Adam, Alexander, Aron, Jess, Neil on 12 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Aron Kisdi

      Aron Kisdi answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Simple, the universe is neither infinite or static. Our current best model of how the universe was formed is the Big Bang.
      Personally I don’t think anything in nature can be infinite in the true sense. Of course questions such as what is beyond the universe and what was before the universe are things we simply do not have any answer for yet.

    • Photo: Jessica Marshall

      Jessica Marshall answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      It is a great paradox because it just shows that we have lots left to prove or disprove!

    • Photo: Neil Bowles

      Neil Bowles answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      I mentioned it as an example of how a comparatively simple set of observations can lead to deep questions about the nature of the universe around us. Another great one is Mach’s principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach's_principle), or the two slit experiment in quantum mechanics etc.

      The Olbers Paradox shows how the underlying assumptions in a hypothesis can be tested, and proved to be incomplete.

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