Rubber Bands and the Universe

The world that we inhabit is a huge place. Compare it with our home Solar system, and earth is humbled in size. Our Sun manages to consume more than 99.8% of the mass of our Solar system. So, it’s left to our imagination, how magnanimous Sun could be and how belittling it is for our Mother Earth. If we consider the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, it is said to have an appetite of more than a 1000 Earths. Further humbling experience for our Mother! Farther away from our solar system are many other “Solar systems” with their own bossy Suns. And in comparison to their burning ball of fire, our Sun is regarded as an ordinary star! In my head, I’m thinking, Ordinary? You mean they are bigger than our Sun? That’s ridiculous! I’ve already used the word “Magnanimous” to describe our Sun! Back Up! There are many Stars, like our Sun, which have been burning fuel and emitting heat, light and radiation but are far bigger than our own Sun.

The solar systems are housed in Galaxies. Our solar system occupies a Galaxy named “Milky Way”. On a clear night sky, if we are lucky, we can see the white streak of wave, which in fact is the “Milky Way”, our Galaxy (The “Guardians of the Galaxy” led by Peter Quill a.k.a. Star Lord of the Marvel Universe were the protectors of the “Milky Way” though never explicitly acknowledged). It is believed by physicists that more than a billion solar systems reside in the Milky Way Galaxy. Phew! Imagine the size of our Sun, the giver of life, amongst the population of a billion of Solar systems in our home Galaxy. And what can we say about the existence of our Mother Earth in the entire scheme of massiveness. It doesn’t end here. The Galaxies are said to be encompassed within the Universe (Uni – a single – verse). The number of Galaxies present in the Universe are no less than a “Billion”. And it is proved by Sir Stephen Hawking through his concept of Black holes that the Universe is ever expanding. We can’t even begin to fathom the hugeness of the matter around us.

After the cosmic gargantuan, let’s visit the basic building block of matter – An Atom (My version of Gulliver Travels). The atom consists of the central core called Nucleus. The Nucleus hosts both Protons and Neutrons, while the electrons orbit the central Nucleus (Discover that in our Solar system, the Sun is the central figure, while the planets orbit around it). The atoms can lose or gain electrons thereby changing their physical properties. We can make material emit heat by rubbing it along a surface. The emission of heat is due to the electrons spinning faster, which is the consequence of the rubbing effect. The electrons manage to leave their home atom if they receive sufficient impetus and begin orbiting neighbouring atoms. In case of a Rubber band and its given flexibility, we can realize that pulling a rubber band is synonymous to rubbing any other material to generate heat. When the rubber band is pulled, the atoms within the band resist the pull and indicate their wants of returning to their original state of rest. The pulling of the rubber band leads to the faster spinning of the electrons thereby producing slight heat while expanding. This phenomenon can be verified if we keep the rubber band on our upper lip and pull the band at both the ends, the heat dissipated can be sensed due to the pull action.     

Our solar system has Eight planets (It used to be Nine, but somebody didn’t like Pluto being around so they demoted it to the dwarf planet status in 2006 – The world of Disney must have been sad since Mickey had named his faithful dog “Pluto” after the discovery of the Ninth planet in our Solar system) and Five dwarf planets with millions of asteroids and minor bodies. The farthest planet orbiting our Sun is the dwarf planet Eris in the Kuiper belt. A few light years ahead of Eris are other planetary bodies which also revolve around our Sun but there is a strong possibility that they might break away from our solar system family, if subjected to sufficient impetus and subsequently join another Solar system family neighbouring our own (We do not know if this ever happened but it is strongly speculated). This phenomenon closely resembles the behaviour of electrons within an atom. The resemblance extends to the fact that every object in the Universe – Planets, Asteroids, Moons, Space rocks, Comets, Solar systems, Galaxies and other debris in space are all spinning much akin to the atoms within objects made of different matter.  

Standing in between the microscopic (Atom) and macroscopic (Universe), imagine a rubber band in your hand and you are stretching it slowly making it to expand and turn warmer. Just as a mere thought experiment, imagine the universe that we inhabit is equivalent to a rubber band and a playful child is doing the same. If we observe closely, the effects on the rubber band that we have pulled (for no reason whatsoever) and the effects on the universe (which is pulled by the child for no reason whatsoever) are the same.

Would it be then safe to say that the different Solar systems are the atoms (the basic building blocks) of the rubber band (Universe) and the high spirited and fun loving child is playing with us with no rationale whatsoever? Food for Thought!

Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer – The above opinion is of the author (with insights from his Son, Viaan: www.viaan.net) and prior pardon is sought if a vestige of blasphemy is witnessed by the reader.