A review of some important ideas from previous classes Classical notions Principle of Sufficient Reason Time and space

are absolute Classical principle of relativity The laws of nature are deterministic Time is reversible; that is, there is no arrow of time in the laws of nature Special Relativity Unlike in a Newtonian universe, time is not absolute Instead of time being an independent dimension, there is now 4-D space-time Matter and energy are equivalent The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference General Relativity Gravity is a distortion of the geometry of the space surrounding mass The universe must have originated in a point source: the Big Bang The actual structure of space is unknown because the equations of GR have numerous solutions The laws of physics are the same in all reference frames that are sufficiently well-behaved Space is 4-dimensional space-time Quantum Theory Matter can act as both a wave and a particle The wave function of a particle tells where the particle might be found, but only observation gives a specific location The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Whereas both SR and GR are deterministic, QT is probabilistic Quantum theory cannot account for gravity There are four fundamental forces in nature, each with a corresponding field and particle There are fundamental particles of matter, but we will not explore this further Planck Satellite data The universe is 13.81B years old The universe is incredibly smooth, homogeneous in all directions The data support the inflationary theory of expansion Time Although physical theories have no direction of time, nature has an arrow of time The arrow of time is based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which is a meta-law This implies that the baby universe had extremely low entropy