Need help with this Astronomy Question!?

A

Amina

New member
okay so heres the question:

A student partially blows up a balloon with air. she then places one dot on the balloon and labels it "earth." she then labaels another nearby dot "galaxy 1" & a third dot farther away"Galaxy 2." Then she contiunes to blow up the balloon.

question a.) Describe the motion of the two "galaxies" with respect to the dot that represent earth.

question b.) Explain why this balloon is a good simple model of the motion of objects in the universe.
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so this question has to do with the expanding universe and i guess this is a representation of this? Could someone please explain the questions and please give an answer :) thankyou.
 
Hello,

Yes this is a common example used to explain the way objects move away from each other as the universe expands. No matter where you are...you see objects moving away from you (other planets and galaxies anyway...not necessarily things like asteroids).

a) the two "galaxies" will be moving away from "earth" as the universe (balloon) expands.

b) you can think of the universe as a fabric. It is often called the fabric of space-time. Don't worry too much about why they call it that...just remember that all objects are sitting on this "fabric." If you expand a fabric, the object on it must move away from each other.

Hope this helps
 
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