Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!laura From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: The General Theory of Relativity and Cosmology Message-ID: <679@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Thu, 16-Jun-83 02:40:45 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.679 Posted: Thu Jun 16 02:40:45 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jun-83 08:02:05 EDT References: <349@lanl-a.UUCP> Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 38 When I was a child I stumbled on the Steady State theory of cosmology long before the Big Bang. I found it a rather emotionally satisfying theory. Later, alas, I was told that it was obselete, and was horribly disappointed. Much later, I discovered that the people who told me that Big Bang was definitely it (such as high school physics teachers) were oversimplifying. When I finally went out and hit the physics textbooks myself, I find a lot of contradictions. I also keep having to look up the names of physicists to see what else they were doing and whether they changed their minds about some of the theories they used to advance Big Bang or Steady State throughout their lives. As if this were not bad enough, I learned that the maths were hideously complicated and you could spend weeks and months looking at one equation not understanding it at all. Now I have a problem. I would dearly love to believe in Steady State for personal reasons, but I am not going to adopt it if it is generally thought false by physicists who know far, far better than I. On the other hand, if there is about equal strength to either hypothesis, one only being currently "popular" among the general public, then I can go back to believing Steady State, cant I? What I need is the names of current books and articles written by the proponents of both theories so I can better understand each view. I would be especially greatful if only Undergraduate level math was required to understand the views as well. you can reach me at utzoo!utcsstat!laura. Utzoo talks to many sites including linus, allegra and ihnp4. In desperation you can try the decvax!utzoo link, but it has not been very reliable lately. Thank you very much, Laura Creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura now, if you could only restore my belief in Santa Claus....