I mentioned to my 9-year-old nephew that the universe is expanding, and he asked:
“How do you know we’re not shrinking?”
Well, ok, let’s give the kid the benefit of the doubt. Suppose the universe is a fixed size, and we (and our measuring devices) are shrinking? I explained to him that the things in the universe, like galaxies, aren’t expanding, just the space between them. To which he asked:
“So only really big things are getting farther apart, why not little things?”
So, ok, what about stars within gallaxies, or planets, or people, or sub-atomic particles? Is everything getting farther apart? Does the micro-universe follow the sames rules as the macro-universe?
1, Smack him in the head and say “SHUT UP AND STOP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS.”
2, answer the questions.
[quote]
“How do you know we’re not shrinking?”
[quote]
-because I said so.
-We use a ruler to check that we are the same size.
-only old people shrink
-We are shrinking. A year from now We’ll be so small spiders will eat us for food, and we’ll all die.
-The universe is expanding. It started with an explosion. The galaxies are like dots on the outside of a balloon. As the explosion continues, it’s like blowing up the balloon. The more you blow up the balloon the further apart the dots get. One day the ballon will pop and we’ll all die! No shut up and get me a beer.
-Little things and little people like you don’t count. Now shut up!
-The things are on the dot on the balloon, not on the balloon. When we blow up the balloon only the dots move. The things on the dots maintain there relative positions
-God doesn’t worry about details.
-We haven’t gotten around to moving the little things yet.
-All the little things move every night. Their replaced by fake little things the next day. They do this with people too. They replace all the people with robots. Your Mommy and Daddy were taken away and killed along time ago. The people in your house are fake robots, and one night they are going to sneak into your room and rip you apart, kill you, feed the pieces to your dog, and turn what’s left into a robot. I think it’s tonight.
