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My apologies if this has been posted before, but if it has, it's worth a second look.

Some people have posted comments declaring that this video has changed their lives. I'm not sure about that but it is certainly very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ

The older but more watched version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw&feature=user

What Fu** has that got to do with 42?
Or am I thick. As my nephew has just gone out to the sand, I thought I was going to get some info

Got 1, this is the NAAFI section.

If I was referring to a Royal Marines unit I would have posted in the Royal Marines section of the forums.

I would also have referred to the unit as '42 Cdo RM' or similar.

'42' when written as '42' means what it says on the can ie. the number forty-two.

And for those who are familiar with the work of Doug Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was revealed as 42 (not the RM unit but the number forty-two).

It was a little bit cryptic I know, but I thought it was appropriate.

To avoid further confusion I have changed the title.

Do you still have your towel Rogue?
If so I'll meet you at the restaurant at the end of the universe.

I only knew of 42.

I suppose it should be forty-two really!?

But, anyway, it's absolutely fascinating and inspires feelings of awe and wonder.

But talking about wonder, it did make me wonder one thing: Scientists agree that the universe is [about] 15 billion years old. In the video they are telling us it is 47 billion light years in radius. Fair enough - we aren't in a position to disagree with them.

Having said that, if the universe is 'only' 15 billion years old, how could light from distant galaxies reach us, if they are three times further away than the speed light can travel in the time they tell us that the universe has existed?

If the light from a galaxy 47 bn light years away set off at the exact moment the universe came into being it would still have 32 billion years to travel before it reached us. So, how can we see it?

I always wonder what there was before the Big Bang. Also, if the universe is expanding, what exactly is it expanding into?

Noted and corrected, I've had a hard day!

Your question is a valid one. If you can be doing with reading it all, this explains it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

It has something to do with the expansion of space time as well as the galaxies moving away from each other. Although generally speaking nothing travels faster than light, the space in between objects can apparently!

Also the light we are seeing has not travelled 47 billion light years to reach us. When that light set out, the universe was much younger and smaller. So although those objects may now be 47 billion light years away we are seeing them when they were only a few billion light years away.

As my old Sgt Maj used to say "E = MC²"

Hyperlithe,

42!

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, (so it's reckoned),
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.


The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, (and that's the fastest speed there is).
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

(Thanks to those C..Rrrr.AZY Python types....)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JWVshkVF0SY

BTW .......I though 42 was an elite Engineer Regiment

Rogue Chef wrote: Your question is a valid one. If you can be doing with reading it all, this explains it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

It has something to do with the expansion of space time as well as the galaxies moving away from each other. Although generally speaking nothing travels faster than light, the space in between objects can apparently!


Also the light we are seeing has not travelled 47 billion light years to reach us. When that light set out, the universe was much younger and smaller. So although those objects may now be 47 billion light years away we are seeing them when they were only a few billion light years away.

Rogue,

You're right, I couldn't be bothered with reading it all [after all I've posted 'information' in wikipedia - and who'd believe me?? ] but they explain:

It may seem paradoxical that two galaxies can be separated by 93 billion light years in only 13 billion years, since special relativity states that matter cannot exceed the speed of light in a localized region of space-time. However, according to general relativity, space can expand with no intrinsic limit on its rate; thus, two galaxies can separate more quickly than the speed of light if the space between them grows.

They're right - it IS paradoxical. If the light from galaxies 47 bn lt/yrs away set off 15 billion yrs ago, what about light from galaxies 15 bn l/yrs away?? If they're both reaching us at the same time how can we differentiate their distances? And, of course, if 'space' is expanding at faster than the speed of light, then so is the material which is separated by it. How 'space' can expand is yet another mystery!

More recently, the invariability of the speed of light has been challenged with 3 [or 4?] explanations as to how it might have changed over time, so that it was much faster at the Big Bang and is now slowing down!?

Anyway, needless to say science quite frequently comes up with theories that can't be explained - but seem plausible. A mathematician from Cambridge published a paper not long ago explaining that the Big Bang arose when two 'Branes' of super-strings collided producing matter [somehow]. (Doh! Can't remember his name except that it began with 'L' )

When he was asked how he could prove this he said it could never be proved but it was satisfying enough to him to be able to produce a mathematical model which shows how it 'could' have happened.


A dark room is calling me!

Steve

You are eating too much of your own scran mate......get yourself a Pot Noodle.....You`ll feel better.....GEN!!

Was out and about the other day when this bloke just came up to me and told me that he liked Level forty two as well........????????????

Asked him what he was going on about as you do. He then pointed at me little lapel badge which is white and has a dagger with the number's 4 and 2 on each side of said dagger. So I told him that it meant I had served with 42 CDORM during my time in the Corps.

Bless Him. He meant well! And as it turned out was a good egg and ended up having a wet or two with me and me mates that Saturday evening. As it happens I've always like level 42 meself.

ARTIST

Can't remember his name except that it began with 'L'

Stephen Lawking?

Albert Leinstein?

Carl Lagan?

Edwin Lubble?

Rogue,

Sorry but it's none of these. I did look at both the academic staff and research staff in the Depts of Pure Maths and Mathematical Statistics - and Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics, but no joy there either.

He might have moved on, of course, or I just might not be recognizing his name when I see it on a list.

All I can recall is that it began with an 'L' and was an unusual name

It's just a pity it isn't Professor W. Lickorish!