Plus or Minus a Dime's Mass

Originally posted by sonhouse
The fact that we do not know the exact mass of the universe is what renders his opinion moot. It's an example of just making an unsupportable statement that makes the idea non-scientific.

I dunno. I heard Morgan Freeman on his Wormhole show on Disc Channel tell the exact number of elecrons in the universe. Now, if we know that, and wh know the rate of expansion of the universe, and we know how much of all the OTHER elements are in the universe...couldn't we determine the mass of the entire universe?

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
I dunno. I heard Morgan Freeman on his Wormhole show on Disc Channel tell the exact number of elecrons in the universe. Now, if we know that, and wh know the rate of expansion of the universe, and we know how much of all the OTHER elements are in the universe...couldn't we determine the mass of the entire universe?

We don't know that. In fact the number of electrons is not a constant because they can be produced or asborbed in various nuclear reactions. So what Morgan Freeman was saying was most likely an estimate of the number of electrons.

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
I dunno. I heard Morgan Freeman on his Wormhole show on Disc Channel tell the exact number of elecrons in the universe. Now, if we know that, and wh know the rate of expansion of the universe, and we know how much of all the OTHER elements are in the universe...couldn't we determine the mass of the entire universe?

Exact? 😕

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
I dunno. I heard Morgan Freeman on his Wormhole show on Disc Channel tell the exact number of elecrons in the universe.

Morgan Freeman being, of course, the foremost quantum astrophysicist in modern science. Right.

We don't even know the exact number of electrons in a cubic millimeter of vacuum. And no, it probably isn't zero, at any one moment, for any given cubic mm.

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Morgan Freeman being, of course, the foremost quantum astrophysicist in modern science. Right.

We don't even know the exact number of electrons in a cubic millimeter of vacuum. And no, it probably isn't zero, at any one moment, for any given cubic mm.

Richard

Considering virtual particles, even if there were ZERO electrons or protons or neutrons in a given cubic mm, there still would be particles there flashing in and out of existence in sub picosecond times. Good luck counting THOSE!🙂

Originally posted by sonhouse
Considering virtual particles, even if there were ZERO electrons or protons or neutrons in a given cubic mm, there still would be particles there flashing in and out of existence in sub picosecond times. Good luck counting THOSE!🙂

chucklechuckle...😀

Perhaps the term "a dime's mass" was just being used as a figure of speech...?

Originally posted by Soothfast
Perhaps the term "a dime's mass" was just being used as a figure of speech...?

Even then it would be stupid as mass is not conserved in the universe... An astrophysicist would know this though, so this guy is intentionally lying, probably with the goal of making money.