I'm talking about one of the nerdiest fist bumps possible. James and I have come up with three variations of the normal fist bump that depict three different hypotheses about the end of the universe.
A fist bump, as you may know, is when two people, as a way of greeting, meet their fists in air sort of like punching each others' fists, like so:
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| Part 1. Typical fist bump |
We took it further than this initial bump. We imagined that right after the bump our hands would move away symbolizing the Big Bang:
The Big Bang is of course the most popular cosmological model for the early universe. Through theory and observation scientists think that our universe started out probably from a single super dense point, created by quantum fluctuations, and then suddenly started expanding. Our fist bump is an accelerated depiction of the universe's timeline. Since we don't know and probably never will know how the universe will meet its end we decided to have three different fist bumps each depicting a popular theory for the demise of the universe. The Big Crunch, the Big Rip, and the Big Freeze.
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| Part 2. Expansion! |
The Big Crunch
This is probably the most satisfying of our fist bumps but, also the most conventional looking (I've seen "normal" people do something similar before.) The idea behind the Big Crunch is that the universe will eventually start reversing it's current motion and come together in a black hole singularity. After part 2 of the fist bump we extend our arms behind us a bit and then return them to the starting point with a clap.
The Big Rip
This is the silliest fist bump out of the three. It's kind of impossible to do it accurately. This hypothesis states that the universe will continue to expand until even sub atomic particles are split apart by the infinite expansion. Part 3b is done by just continuing to move the hands away from each other until both people just start laughing. It can get pretty ridiculous.
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| Part 3a. The Big Crunch |
This is the silliest fist bump out of the three. It's kind of impossible to do it accurately. This hypothesis states that the universe will continue to expand until even sub atomic particles are split apart by the infinite expansion. Part 3b is done by just continuing to move the hands away from each other until both people just start laughing. It can get pretty ridiculous.
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| Part 3b. Cannot be photographed well |
My favorite fist bump and possible outcome of the universe. The universe expands forever reaching close to absolute zero, if it reaches maximum entropy (the amount of energy not available for useful work) then things will pretty much be frozen. No light or anything, all of the energy used up. To get this idea across James and I increase to distance between our hands and after a short period of time we freeze in place and just sit there for a moment.
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| Part 3c. Freeze! |
Abby
Very clever. The descriptions accurately describe the different methods of the Big Bang fist bumps.... I had previously known the different theories, but was not aware of their names/nicknames. Its always nice to learn something. Perhaps a trend will be started!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting and sharing these out-of-this-world fist bumps!
(sorry. couldnt resist.)
Haha, this is a great and funny description.
ReplyDelete