Tonight BBC2: The Wonders of the Universe

[Clinton Huxley]

Thought it was a bit lightweight. The elements were made in stars, some in supernovas. I get ya, Coxie. You don't have to tell me 8 times.

[Rum]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..how many people are trying to bring astrophysics and cosmology to the popular arena after all!? I liked the nod to Sagan too!

However..sorry to say this..any real explanation of what gravity actually is, was missing/unclear or uncertain. He went into the whole mass/curved space thing but I don't think the average person not used at least to the sort of level of understanding an amateur enthusiast has would have got it. His metaphors could have done with a bit more work for that audience anyway.

Never mind - great prog even so!

[HomerJay]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..

yeah, gravity's cool, let's hear it for gravity...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..

yeah, gravity's cool, let's hear it for gravity...

Heavy topic.

[Pappa]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..how many people are trying to bring astrophysics and cosmology to the popular arena after all!? I liked the nod to Sagan too!

However..sorry to say this..any real explanation of what gravity actually is, was missing/unclear or uncertain. He went into the whole mass/curved space thing but I don't think the average person not used at least to the sort of level of understanding an amateur enthusiast has would have got it. His metaphors could have done with a bit more work for that audience anyway.

Never mind - great prog even so!

There's a great diagram in Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time that illustrates the idea perfectly (along with the accompanying text). The more massive an object is, the more it bends space-time. If you picture a snooker table with the playing surface replaced with a rubber sheet, and a large object like a watermelon sitting in the middle, the sheet will be warped by the weight of the watermelon. This rubber sheet represents what is happening to space-time due to gravity. If you take a ping-pong ball and try to fire it in a straight line from one side of the table to another, it won't go straight, it's path will be curved by the warping of the sheet and it will take a curved path around the watermelon.

Though in a more complex sense, the objects are still traveling in straight lines, but the lines are in a curved space so the object appears to follow a curve.

[Tigger]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..how many people are trying to bring astrophysics and cosmology to the popular arena after all!? I liked the nod to Sagan too!

However..sorry to say this..any real explanation of what gravity actually is, was missing/unclear or uncertain. He went into the whole mass/curved space thing but I don't think the average person not used at least to the sort of level of understanding an amateur enthusiast has would have got it. His metaphors could have done with a bit more work for that audience anyway.

Never mind - great prog even so!

There's a great diagram in Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time that illustrates the idea perfectly (along with the accompanying text). The more massive an object is, the more it bends space-time. If you picture a snooker table with the playing surface replaced with a rubber sheet, and a large object like a watermelon sitting in the middle, the sheet will be warped by the weight of the watermelon. This rubber sheet represents what is happening to space-time due to gravity. If you take a ping-pong ball and try to fire it in a straight line from one side of the table to another, it won't go straight, it's path will be curved by the warping of the sheet and it will take a curved path around the watermelon.

Though in a more complex sense, the objects are still traveling in straight lines, but the lines are in a curved space so the object appears to follow a curve.

I get the rubber sheet analogy, and I think I can even just about visualise it in 4(?) dimensions, but I just didn't get the idea of the mountains and valleys being similarly representative, nor the idea of something perpetually "falling" as a way of conveying an idea. Needed more I felt.

[PsychoSerenity]

I love Brian's 5G face.

Also,
"As you fall into a black hole ... you would be quite literally spaghettified."


But mainly, as with the first two, I'm left with such a feeling of wonder that I think, knowing this, why would anybody need religion?

[devogue]

Well tonight was 'gravity'. I am a huge fan..how many people are trying to bring astrophysics and cosmology to the popular arena after all!? I liked the nod to Sagan too!

However..sorry to say this..any real explanation of what gravity actually is, was missing/unclear or uncertain. He went into the whole mass/curved space thing but I don't think the average person not used at least to the sort of level of understanding an amateur enthusiast has would have got it. His metaphors could have done with a bit more work for that audience anyway.

Never mind - great prog even so!

There's a great diagram in Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time that illustrates the idea perfectly (along with the accompanying text). The more massive an object is, the more it bends space-time. If you picture a snooker table with the playing surface replaced with a rubber sheet, and a large object like a watermelon sitting in the middle, the sheet will be warped by the weight of the watermelon. This rubber sheet represents what is happening to space-time due to gravity. If you take a ping-pong ball and try to fire it in a straight line from one side of the table to another, it won't go straight, it's path will be curved by the warping of the sheet and it will take a curved path around the watermelon.

Though in a more complex sense, the objects are still traveling in straight lines, but the lines are in a curved space so the object appears to follow a curve.

That's a far better analogy than Cox's about the mountain range being what the universe looks like in terms of the troughs of gravity - the trouble with the mountain range is that it has peaks, and it implies that there are "peaks" of gravity - still, it looked more univeresy than a pool table. It was a very laboured programme, and the silent "linking" pauses were interminable.

[Deep Sea Isopod]

Gravity has no evidence to support it. Intelligent Falling is real!

[klr]

The bastard! He even gets to fly in a Hawker Hunter!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Gravity has no evidence to support it. Intelligent Falling is real!

They proved that in "Avatar".

[Rum]

Tonight's was so so. More for the 'beginner' I felt. Personally I thought the first of the series looking at the universe in terms of entropy was the best. It was a new and fresh approach.

Still - this was low 'popular science' and for that it was very good.

[Geoff]

there's a book of the series out now - looks good.

[Clinton Huxley]

The whole series has been lightweight. Goes out on Beeb 2 at 9pm, devil-take-you, not BBC1 at 7:30. Still, if you like shots of Prof Cox from a helicopter, this is the series for you.

[klr]

The whole series has been lightweight. Goes out on Beeb 2 at 9pm, devil-take-you, not BBC1 at 7:30. Still, if you like shots of Prof Cox from a helicopter, this is the series for you.

Very few if any science programs go out on BBC1 these days. BBC1 is mainly for drama, soaps, and reality TV.