Understanding Hubble’s expanding universe: a plain man’s guide ~ Dr Roger Wood

In 2005 I came across an article in Scientific American entitled “Misconceptions about the Big Bang” written by two Australian astronomers who added the subheading “Baffled by the expansion of the universe? You are not alone. Even astronomers frequently get it wrong”. I was intrigued and their article forms the basis of this talk. Although much has happened in cosmology in the intervening 15 years, nothing has really changed with regard to the overall concepts of the expansion as revealed by observation and described by the general theory of relativity. I aim to answer some of the commonly asked questions about the nature of the Big Bang and show why it was necessary to revise our basic ideas of space and time to make sense of what we observe.