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The Heavens Declare

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2)

          When I went to college, I dreamed of being an astronomer. To my dismay, it turned out that astronomy was more about mathematics than it was about beauty. At the time, that disillusionment was more than I could bear. I change my major. Fast forward almost forty years, and I find myself dreaming of a telescope so I can explore and share the beauty, and I’m writing a series of blog posts that have me trying to make sense of the physics formulae that astronomers use to figure out how the universe works. I’ve also been reading about things in the universe that, if they were only slightly different, the universe wouldn’t exist, or we wouldn’t exist. What’s more, if the earth were just a little different from what it is, our ability to understand the universe would be drastically and devastatingly decreased.
          For example, did you know that our moon just happens to be just the right size, and at just the right distance as to make total eclipses of the sun possible? It was an eclipse that allowed scientists to test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
         I’ve included a partial list of those bits of fine-tuning below. According to materialistic naturalists, it’s not a coincidence that all those things happen to be in the universe that we’re part of, but it is a coincidence that they, and we, happened. We just happened to be the ones who put quarters in all the one-armed-bandits in the cosmic casino and won the jackpots on all of them at the same time. There’s one particular coincidence that I’ve found – I assume I’m not the only one – that I’ll share when the post containing the information goes live, though it may not be quite as impressive to you as it was to me. 
         Of course, when David wrote the words above, he didn’t know about relativity or the finely tuned universe. He looked at the stars and the moon as I prefer to, for their beauty. He looked at the same stars as the astronomers and saw glory, not numbers. Had he seen the numbers, though, he would probably have seen the glory in the numbers. 
          Perhaps that is part of our society’s problem. Some folks say we should “stop and smell the roses,” and they’re probably correct. But perhaps we need also to stop and gaze at the heavens and take time to study the intricacy of the brushstrokes used in its creation.


          Some Fine Tuned Factors. Change them by their last couple digits and everything changes.
Name
Symbol
Value
Atomic Mass Unit
mu
1.66053873(13) x 10-27 kg
Avogadro’s Number
NA
6.02214199(47) x 1023 mol-1
Bohr Magneton
http://www.physlink.com/Images/symbols/mu.gifB
9.27400899(37) x 10-24 J T-1
Bohr Radius
ao
0.5291772083(19) x 10-10 m
Boltzmann’s Constant
k
1.3806503(24) x 10-23 J K-1
Compton Wavelength
http://www.physlink.com/Images/symbols/lambda.gifc
2.426310215(18) x 10-12 m
Deuteron Mass
md
3.34358309(26) x 10-27 kg
Electric Constant
http://www.physlink.com/Images/symbols/epsilon.gifo
8.854187817 x 10-12 F m-1
Electron Mass
me
9.10938188(72) x 10-31 kg
Electron-Volt
eV
1.602176462(63) x 10-19 J
Elementary Charge
e
1.602176462(63) x 10-19 C
Faraday Constant
F
9.64853415(39) x 104 C mol-1
Fine Structure Constant
7.297352533(27) x 10-3
Hartree Energy
Eh
4.35974381(34) x 10-18 J
Hydrogen Ground State

13.6057 eV
Josephson Constant
Kj
4.83597898(19) x 1014 Hz V-1
Magnetic Constant
o
4 x 10-7
Molar Gas Constant
R
8.314472(15) J K-1 mol-1
Natural Unit of Action
1.054571596(82) x 10-34 J s
Newtonian Constant of Gravitation
G
6.673(10) x 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2
Neutron Mass
mn
1.67492716(13) x 10-27 kg
Nuclear Magneton
n
5.05078317(20) x 10-27 J T-1
Planck Constant
h
6.62606876(52) x 10-34 J s
h = 2 
Planck Length
lp
1.6160(12) x 10-35 m
Planck Mass
mp
2.1767(16) x 10-8 kg
Planck Time
tp
5.3906(40) x 10-44 s
Proton Mass
mP
1.67262158(13) x 10-27 kg
Rydberg Constant
RH
10 9.73731568549(83) x 105 m-1
Stefan Boltzmann Constant
5.670400(40) x 10-8 W m-2 K-4
Speed of Light in Vacuum
c
2.99792458 x 108 m s-1
Thompson Cross Section
e
0.665245854(15) x 10-28 m2
Wien Displacement Law Constant
b
2.8977686(51) x 10-3 m K
Faraday Constant
F
9.64853415(39) x 104 C mol-1
Fine Structure Constant
7.297352533(27) x 10-3
Hartree Energy
Eh
4.35974381(34) x 10-18 J
Hydrogen Ground State

13.6057 eV
Josephson Constant
Kj
4.83597898(19) x 1014 Hz V-1
Magnetic Constant
o
4 x 10-7
Molar Gas Constant
R
8.314472(15) J K-1 mol-1
Natural Unit of Action
1.054571596(82) x 10-34 J s
Newtonian Constant of Gravitation
G
6.673(10) x 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2
Neutron Mass
mn
1.67492716(13) x 10-27 kg



Comments

  1. Tom DunkertonJune 13, 2019 at 8:39 AM

    Wow. I had forgotten that I actually have started a blog before, and I am still signed in! Anyway, even though I have believed in God all my life, I had my "epiphany" that the universe had form, structure, order and (dare I say) design when I had the Periodic Table of the Elements explained. Suddenly I not only knew the designer, I had insight into the design. There, right in front of me, on a single, poster sized piece of paper, was the blueprint of the universe. Well, maybe that is a little bit of hyperbole, but only a bit. The point is, that one elegantly simple yet marvelously complex organization of information, sets the foundation for all we know about Particle Physics, Chemistry, Bio-Chemistry, Astrophysics and I'm sure other fields as well. The Periodic Table and the Standard Model of the atom it represents does not explain everything. We are far from a "Theory of Everything", and I don't think we will know the "Mind of God" as Steven Hawking predicted, but I thank God that he has given us lowly humans a means of understanding the parts of himself that he chooses to reveal and he has chosen to show us his character through the created universe. Just a comment, not a blog.

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