Remember the Alamo

The Alamo in San Antonio is where a small force of Texas rebels held off the huge Mexican army. The University of Texas at San Antonio was a brief stop on the way to Florida. Talk to the Joint Meeting October 22-24 of the American Physical Society (APS), American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and National Society of Hispanic Physicists:

GM=tc^3 Cosmology and the Moon

Relativity suggests an expanding cosmology of scale R = ct, where t is age of the Universe. Gravitation would then require that c be further related to t by: GM = tc^3. Where G and M are mass and gravitational constant, this simple expression predicts data from the microwave background, including 4.507034% baryonic matter and a stable density $ \Omega$ = 1. The non-linear increase in Type Ia supernova redshifts may be precisely predicted without repulsive energies. (Riofrio, 2004) Prediction of a changing c may be tested with modern lanterns and the distant hilltop of the Moon. Our Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment has measured the Moon's semimajor axis increasing at 3.82 ± .07 cm/yr, anomalously high. The Mansfield sediment (Bills, Ray 2000) measures lunar recession at 2.9 ± 0.6 cm/yr. More recent work accurately measures a recession rate of 2.82 ± .08 cm/yr. LLRE differs from independent experiments by 10 $\sigma$. If the speed of laser light were decaying, the Moon's apparent distance is predicted to increase by 0.935 cm/yr. An anomaly in the Moon's orbit is precisely accounted for. This interesting result may have importance for cosmology, shedding light on puzzles of "dark energy.'' In Planck units, this may be summarised as: M = R = t.

The audience at San Antonio was very intent and interested. If a scientist ever feels surrounded by adversity, remember the Alamo!