full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chris Anderson: How many universes are there?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Music) Sometimes when I'm on a long plane fighlt, I gaze out at all those mountains and deserts and try to get my head around how vast our Earth is. And then I rbeeemmr that there's an object we see every day that would literally fit one million Earths inside it. The sun seems impossibly big, but in the great scheme of things, it's a pinprick, one of about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which you can see on a clear night as a pale, white mist stretched across the sky. And it gets wsore. There are maybe 100 billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes, so if each star was the size of a single gairn of sand, just the Milky Way has enough stars to fill a 30 foot by 30 foot stretch of beach three feet deep with sand. And the entire ertah doesn't have enough beaches to represent the stars in the overall universe. Such a beach would cituonne for literally hundreds of molniils of miles. Holy Stephen Hawking, that is a lot of stars. But he and other physicists now believe in a reality that is unimaginably bigger still. I mean, first of all, the 100 billion galaxies within range of our telescopes are probably a minuscule fraction of the total. Space itself is expanding at an accelerating pace. The vast majority of the galaxies are separating from us so fast that lihgt from them may never reach us. Still, our phsyiacl reality here on Earth is intimately connected to those distant, invisible gaiaxles. We can think of them as part of our universe. They make up a single, giant edifice, obeying the same physical laws and all made from the same types of aomts, ecrnolets, protons, quarks, neutrinos that make up you and me. However, recent teiorhes in physics, including one called string theory, are now telling us there could be countless other universes, built on different types of particles, with different properties, obeying different laws. Most of these universes could never surppot life, and might flash in and out of existence in a nanosecond, but nonetheless, combined they make up a vast multiverse of possible usvrneeis. in up to 11 dimensions, featuring wonders beyond our wdislet imagination. And the leading version of string teorhy predicts a mivrslteue made of up to 10 to the 500 universes. That's a one followed by 500 zeeros, a number so vast that if every atom in our observable universe had its own universe and all of the atoms in all of those universes each had their own uvnersie, and you repeated that for two more cycles, you'd still be at a tiny fraction of the total — namely, one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion tlliroin trillion trillion trillion trillionth. But even that number is minuscule compared to another number: infinity. Some physicists think the space-time cnunoutim is literally infinite, and that it contains an infinite nubemr of so-called pocket universes with varying properties. How's your bairn doing? But quantum theory adds a whole new wrinkle. I mean, the theory's been proven true beyond all duobt, but interpreting it is baffling. And some psicythiss think you can only un-baffle it if you imagine that huge numbers of parallel universes are being sewnpad every moment, and many of these universes would actually be very like the world we're in, would include multiple copies of you. In one such universe, you'd graduate with honors and marry the person of your dreams. In another, not so much. There are still some scientists who would say, hogwash. The only meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one, only one universe. And a few philosophers and mystics might agure that even our own universe is an illusion. So, as you can see, right now there is no agreement on this question, not even csole. All we know is, the answer is somewhere between zero and infinity. Well, I gsues we know one other thing: This is a pretty cool time to be stidnuyg physics. We just might be undergoing the biggest paradigm shift in knowledge that humanity has ever seen.

Open Cloze


(Music) Sometimes when I'm on a long plane ______, I gaze out at all those mountains and deserts and try to get my head around how vast our Earth is. And then I ________ that there's an object we see every day that would literally fit one million Earths inside it. The sun seems impossibly big, but in the great scheme of things, it's a pinprick, one of about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which you can see on a clear night as a pale, white mist stretched across the sky. And it gets _____. There are maybe 100 billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes, so if each star was the size of a single _____ of sand, just the Milky Way has enough stars to fill a 30 foot by 30 foot stretch of beach three feet deep with sand. And the entire _____ doesn't have enough beaches to represent the stars in the overall universe. Such a beach would ________ for literally hundreds of ________ of miles. Holy Stephen Hawking, that is a lot of stars. But he and other physicists now believe in a reality that is unimaginably bigger still. I mean, first of all, the 100 billion galaxies within range of our telescopes are probably a minuscule fraction of the total. Space itself is expanding at an accelerating pace. The vast majority of the galaxies are separating from us so fast that _____ from them may never reach us. Still, our ________ reality here on Earth is intimately connected to those distant, invisible ________. We can think of them as part of our universe. They make up a single, giant edifice, obeying the same physical laws and all made from the same types of _____, _________, protons, quarks, neutrinos that make up you and me. However, recent ________ in physics, including one called string theory, are now telling us there could be countless other universes, built on different types of particles, with different properties, obeying different laws. Most of these universes could never _______ life, and might flash in and out of existence in a nanosecond, but nonetheless, combined they make up a vast multiverse of possible _________. in up to 11 dimensions, featuring wonders beyond our _______ imagination. And the leading version of string ______ predicts a __________ made of up to 10 to the 500 universes. That's a one followed by 500 ______, a number so vast that if every atom in our observable universe had its own universe and all of the atoms in all of those universes each had their own ________, and you repeated that for two more cycles, you'd still be at a tiny fraction of the total — namely, one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion ________ trillion trillion trillion trillionth. But even that number is minuscule compared to another number: infinity. Some physicists think the space-time _________ is literally infinite, and that it contains an infinite ______ of so-called pocket universes with varying properties. How's your _____ doing? But quantum theory adds a whole new wrinkle. I mean, the theory's been proven true beyond all _____, but interpreting it is baffling. And some __________ think you can only un-baffle it if you imagine that huge numbers of parallel universes are being _______ every moment, and many of these universes would actually be very like the world we're in, would include multiple copies of you. In one such universe, you'd graduate with honors and marry the person of your dreams. In another, not so much. There are still some scientists who would say, hogwash. The only meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one, only one universe. And a few philosophers and mystics might _____ that even our own universe is an illusion. So, as you can see, right now there is no agreement on this question, not even _____. All we know is, the answer is somewhere between zero and infinity. Well, I _____ we know one other thing: This is a pretty cool time to be ________ physics. We just might be undergoing the biggest paradigm shift in knowledge that humanity has ever seen.

Solution


  1. flight
  2. multiverse
  3. continue
  4. doubt
  5. grain
  6. number
  7. argue
  8. support
  9. physical
  10. brain
  11. universe
  12. atoms
  13. studying
  14. galaxies
  15. worse
  16. close
  17. physicists
  18. continuum
  19. zeroes
  20. remember
  21. trillion
  22. light
  23. spawned
  24. theory
  25. electrons
  26. earth
  27. theories
  28. universes
  29. millions
  30. guess
  31. wildest

Original Text


(Music) Sometimes when I'm on a long plane flight, I gaze out at all those mountains and deserts and try to get my head around how vast our Earth is. And then I remember that there's an object we see every day that would literally fit one million Earths inside it. The sun seems impossibly big, but in the great scheme of things, it's a pinprick, one of about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which you can see on a clear night as a pale, white mist stretched across the sky. And it gets worse. There are maybe 100 billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes, so if each star was the size of a single grain of sand, just the Milky Way has enough stars to fill a 30 foot by 30 foot stretch of beach three feet deep with sand. And the entire Earth doesn't have enough beaches to represent the stars in the overall universe. Such a beach would continue for literally hundreds of millions of miles. Holy Stephen Hawking, that is a lot of stars. But he and other physicists now believe in a reality that is unimaginably bigger still. I mean, first of all, the 100 billion galaxies within range of our telescopes are probably a minuscule fraction of the total. Space itself is expanding at an accelerating pace. The vast majority of the galaxies are separating from us so fast that light from them may never reach us. Still, our physical reality here on Earth is intimately connected to those distant, invisible galaxies. We can think of them as part of our universe. They make up a single, giant edifice, obeying the same physical laws and all made from the same types of atoms, electrons, protons, quarks, neutrinos that make up you and me. However, recent theories in physics, including one called string theory, are now telling us there could be countless other universes, built on different types of particles, with different properties, obeying different laws. Most of these universes could never support life, and might flash in and out of existence in a nanosecond, but nonetheless, combined they make up a vast multiverse of possible universes. in up to 11 dimensions, featuring wonders beyond our wildest imagination. And the leading version of string theory predicts a multiverse made of up to 10 to the 500 universes. That's a one followed by 500 zeroes, a number so vast that if every atom in our observable universe had its own universe and all of the atoms in all of those universes each had their own universe, and you repeated that for two more cycles, you'd still be at a tiny fraction of the total — namely, one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillionth. But even that number is minuscule compared to another number: infinity. Some physicists think the space-time continuum is literally infinite, and that it contains an infinite number of so-called pocket universes with varying properties. How's your brain doing? But quantum theory adds a whole new wrinkle. I mean, the theory's been proven true beyond all doubt, but interpreting it is baffling. And some physicists think you can only un-baffle it if you imagine that huge numbers of parallel universes are being spawned every moment, and many of these universes would actually be very like the world we're in, would include multiple copies of you. In one such universe, you'd graduate with honors and marry the person of your dreams. In another, not so much. There are still some scientists who would say, hogwash. The only meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one, only one universe. And a few philosophers and mystics might argue that even our own universe is an illusion. So, as you can see, right now there is no agreement on this question, not even close. All we know is, the answer is somewhere between zero and infinity. Well, I guess we know one other thing: This is a pretty cool time to be studying physics. We just might be undergoing the biggest paradigm shift in knowledge that humanity has ever seen.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion galaxies 2


Important Words


  1. accelerating
  2. adds
  3. agreement
  4. answer
  5. argue
  6. atom
  7. atoms
  8. baffling
  9. beach
  10. beaches
  11. big
  12. bigger
  13. biggest
  14. billion
  15. brain
  16. built
  17. called
  18. clear
  19. close
  20. combined
  21. compared
  22. connected
  23. continue
  24. continuum
  25. cool
  26. copies
  27. countless
  28. cycles
  29. day
  30. deep
  31. deserts
  32. detectable
  33. dimensions
  34. distant
  35. doubt
  36. dreams
  37. earth
  38. earths
  39. edifice
  40. electrons
  41. entire
  42. existence
  43. expanding
  44. fast
  45. featuring
  46. feet
  47. fill
  48. fit
  49. flash
  50. flight
  51. foot
  52. fraction
  53. galaxies
  54. galaxy
  55. gaze
  56. giant
  57. graduate
  58. grain
  59. great
  60. guess
  61. hawking
  62. head
  63. hogwash
  64. holy
  65. honors
  66. huge
  67. humanity
  68. hundreds
  69. illusion
  70. imagination
  71. imagine
  72. impossibly
  73. include
  74. including
  75. infinite
  76. infinity
  77. interpreting
  78. intimately
  79. invisible
  80. knowledge
  81. laws
  82. leading
  83. life
  84. light
  85. literally
  86. long
  87. lot
  88. majority
  89. marry
  90. meaningful
  91. miles
  92. milky
  93. million
  94. millions
  95. minuscule
  96. mist
  97. moment
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  100. multiverse
  101. music
  102. mystics
  103. nanosecond
  104. neutrinos
  105. night
  106. number
  107. numbers
  108. obeying
  109. object
  110. observable
  111. pace
  112. pale
  113. paradigm
  114. parallel
  115. part
  116. particles
  117. person
  118. philosophers
  119. physical
  120. physicists
  121. physics
  122. pinprick
  123. plane
  124. pocket
  125. predicts
  126. pretty
  127. properties
  128. protons
  129. proven
  130. quantum
  131. quarks
  132. question
  133. range
  134. reach
  135. reality
  136. remember
  137. repeated
  138. represent
  139. sand
  140. scheme
  141. scientists
  142. separating
  143. shift
  144. single
  145. size
  146. sky
  147. space
  148. spawned
  149. star
  150. stars
  151. stephen
  152. stretch
  153. stretched
  154. string
  155. studying
  156. sun
  157. support
  158. telescopes
  159. telling
  160. theories
  161. theory
  162. time
  163. tiny
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  165. trillion
  166. trillionth
  167. true
  168. types
  169. undergoing
  170. unimaginably
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  173. varying
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  175. version
  176. white
  177. wildest
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  180. worse
  181. wrinkle
  182. zeroes