> What does that the universe in geometrically flat mean?

good question, angela. i'll answer it by using a comparison between an infinite flat sheet and globe.

if i draw a straight line on a globe, like an orange, i'll eventually come around to meet up where is started again. a line that seems to start off going straight ends up going to back to the beginning point, and it never turned!

if i draw a straight line on a flat infinite sheet, it'll never encounter the same starting point again. it'll just go on and on forever _without_ intersecting its starting point anywhere, anytime.

there was a project that was recently completed at the south pole, using large balloons to hold a telescope aloft long enough to get enough data to answer the question about whether the universe is more like an orange or an infinite flat sheet. the answer might seem obvious..(it's a sheet, right?).. but the Earth (which _is_ round) looks flat from our perspective. so the astronomers on this "BOOMERANG" project in antarctica took data answer the question using pictures of the little fluctuations of the microwave background radiation left over from the big bang. dr. kim coble is a SII associate who's been working on the "BOOMERANG" project and she came to speak at the SII conference in September.

if the little fluctuations (the dappled spots representing temperature changes) were sized within one parameter, the universe would be distorting images and showing us that it was "curved." maybe not completely like an orange, but something like that. specifically, the way they could tell is related to the internal angles of a triangle. draw a triangle on an orange and the interior angles **don't** meet up to 180 degrees like they would in a flat sheet. the same would be true for a larger object, like the vast expanse of space.

but the BOOMERANG scientists found that the fluctuations were smaller than the size projected for a "curved" universe. so they concluded that the geometery of the larger universe is flat.

so, this finding was announced on the national news because it was a major discovery. many reporters said: "the universe is like a pancake." The _oregonian_ ran an editorial cartoon of angels playing billiards on a FLAT table. (get it?) but those pictures are not really true, either. i can still move up and down and all around in three spatial dimensions. i can also move forward in time, a fourth dimension. there are lots of dimensions for all kinds of movement, but a ray of light going away from me will always go away from me.

there are tons more details about this study and they can be found at:
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~ruhl_lab/boom/BoomFont.html

there's even a primer for non-scientists, if you want more info.

hope this helps. anyone else have something to add, or i forgot to mention?

claudine

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| Claudine Kavanagh |
| Program Coordinator |
| Science Integration Institute |
| office: 503) 848-0280 |
| klavak@excite.com |
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