Feedback Week 2 Quiz: The origins of the universe

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This is the quiz for week 2, and the first quiz that will count towards you final grade. Good luck!

Question 1
What is the scope of cosmology?
Your Answer

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Explanation

The study of the universe as a whole.

The philosophical (but not scientific) study of the universe.
The study of subatomic particles.
The study of any macroscopic (as opposed to microscopic)
events.
The study of planets.
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Question Explanation
The study of the cosmos as a whole, including stars, galaxies, black-holes and similar.

Question 2
How did Newtons Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy lay the foundations for modern
physics?
Your Answer

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Explanation

It was the first concerted attempt to explain how the world worked
by someone who did not believe that appeals to the activity of God
could be explanatory.
It was the first attempt to unify all observable phenomena under
a single law of nature.
It provided the first scientific account of the origins of the
universe.
It provided testable laws of nature that could explain a variety of
observable phenomena.
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Question 3
What is the Kant-Laplace nebular hypothesis?
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An early formulation of the Kantian categorical imperative.

An attempt to supplement Newtonian mathematical predictions
with metaphysical foundations.
One of the first attempts at a scientific explanation of the origins
of the universe based on the hypothesis of an initial nebula of
gases from which planets and stars formed.
The hypothesis that cosmology should not be regarded as a
science because of the metaphysical problems associated with the
universe having a beginning in time and space.
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Question 4

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Explanation

What were the three problems that faced cosmology in particular as a branch of science? (Pick three
answers.)
Your Answer
Laws of Nature: The
issue of how we can know
that the same laws of nature

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Explanation

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The Problem of Laws of Nature is not to do with

applying current laws of nature in the future, but in
the past.

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The Problem of Uniqueness is not to do with laws of

nature being relative to an observer, but to do with

we observe today were

operative at the beginning
of the universe.
Laws of Nature: The
issue of how we can know
that the laws of nature we
postulate today will not be
superseded by other laws in
the future.
Uniqueness: There is
no guarantee that the laws
of nature we postulate are
uniquely correct, since laws
of nature are relative to an
observer in a particular
frame of reference.
Uniqueness: Scientific

the testability of cosmologys subject matter.

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practice typically involves

repeating tests using
multiple different samples of
the object of study in
different circumstances.
This is impossible when the
object of study is the
universe as a whole.
Unobservability: Since
the expansion of the
universe is accelerating
there are parts of the
universe from which
information will never be
able to reach us. As a
result, there are parts of the
universe we will never be
able to observe.

Unobservability: Since
cosmology involves the

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The Problem of Unobservability is not to do with the

unobservability of microscopic particles, but to do

study of subatomic particles

with parts of the universe that we cannot have

too tiny to be observable,

even in principle, there will

access to.

always be uncertainty over

the accuracy of
cosmological theories.
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Question 5
How do we know that galaxies are receding from us?
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Explanation

Because of the way that light shifts further towards the red end of
the spectrum the further it has travelled.
Because of the way that light shifts further towards the blue end
of the spectrum the further it has travelled.
Because all of the other galaxies are really far away.
Because it takes us longer than expected to reach them.
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Question 6
What do we learn from the observed accelerating rate of expansion of the universe?
Your Answer
That all the mass in the universe emerged from a single point
13.5 Billion years ago.

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Explanation

That the space between galaxies is expanding.

That the universe has a finite volume
That space is filled with dark energy.
That the expanding universe began with a phase of inflation.
That dark matter dominates over visible matter.
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Question 7
How does the physicist Smolin tackle the issue of whether our current laws of nature apply to the
early universe?
Your Answer

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Explanation

Smolin thought that cosmology does not require an account of

the laws of nature.
Cosmological Natural Selection: since the scientific
community puts theories through a rigorous natural selection
process we know that what they say about laws must be accurate,
even as applied to the early universe.
Cosmological Natural Selection: Laws evolve with our
universe and they are not timeless.
He claims that, by definition, a law of nature cannot change. Our
current laws must apply to the early universe.
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Question 8
How might Karl Poppers falsificationism provide a solution to the problem of uniqueness in

cosmology?
Your Answer

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Explanation

Theories within cosmology are impossible to falsify. For instance,

it is impossible to falsify Bondi's Steady-State theory. This inability
to be falsified by empirical evidence is what is distinctive of science,
according to Popper.
Poppers falsificationism did not provide a potential solution to
the problem of uniqueness. In fact, it created the problem of
uniqueness.
Theories within cosmology make risky novel predictions which
can be tested empirically, and potentially falsified. For example, the
discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background falsified Bondis
Steady-State theory. This empirical falsifiability is what is distinctive
of science, according to Popper.
Popper solved the problem of uniqueness by showing that all
philosophical accounts of science are unfalsifiable. Hence, all
philosophical accounts of science (including those that lead to the
problem of uniqueness) should be rejected.
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Question 9
What is the origin of the cosmic microwave background?
Your Answer
When the universe cools and forms atoms, radiation can travel
freely, becoming redshifted to the microwave region by the time we
receive it.
This is radiation that is evidence for dark energy.
This is radiation that is created by the collision of dark matter
particles.
This is an alternative name to the cosmological constant,
meaning that empty space has a fixed density.

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Question 10
What is meant by telescopes are time machines?
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We see distant parts of the universe through telescopes as they

were in the deep past, because light takes time to reach us.
We can see into the future of the universe through telescopes,
due to the speed-of-light limit, which dictates what entities in the
universe are observable.
The inventor of the Hubble Space Telescope is also credited with
early designs for a time machine capable of moving through space.
For time machines to be possible they must utilise the optical
technology used to great effect in telescopes.
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Explanation