Title Bar - Cosmology

Activity: Mapping Expansion

Have the students take their furniture models from one of the smallest scaled maps of the mapping the classroom activity and place them on the map. Then arrange some of the other classroom maps in order of increasing scale. This activity is most effective if you have three maps which increase linearly in size. Take the smallest map along with its furniture and explain that this is the size of the universe is at time t = 0. Then move the furniture to the second map and explain that as the universe stretches it is simply as if the scale of the map is stretching while the furniture stays the same size. This second map is t = 1 second, for example. Then, again move the furniture onto an even larger map. See if the students can find the expansion rate of this "stretching universe".


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