Right. A value that doesn't change, but one that has to be measured accurately. So depending on how you are going to approach the issue one could say it is a constant or it is an average.
I'm not going to argue this, I suppose you could argue that it is an average of the most accurate measurements possible. If that's where you're going, fine. I thought you were thinking somewhere else when you said it's an "average".
Is this another concession that I have not misrepresented Bob's proposal?
I don't necessarily think you're misrepresenting Bob's proposal, I think your proposal is a bit different than his. In either case, the "stretching of the heavens" during creation week is what I was referring to.
I find it hard to believe that the popular theory, which claims to not understand what physics meant at the time, cannot be charged with exactly the same crime. If the universe inflates then it affects many things about the universe.
I don't quite understand what you're saying here.
Well, I suppose I could do that. But I'm not.
Why not? Why not take the simplest route to the desired end?
The universe and everything in it expanded. Before it expanded lightwaves traveled at the same speed they do today. The distances between objects was much less. The distance between wave peaks of light was also much less. After inflation the distances between objects and the distances between wave peaks both grew at the same rates. The speed of light remained the same.
Thus the constant in question - the value from which red and blueshifts are derived - grew. The red and blueshift values all grew as well (though the relationship is an exponential function).
This isn't proof. This is the theory as I understand it.
I still disagree with your dismissal of a universal constant to make the idea work. But I don't think our discussion will be very fruitful just going back and forth on this. Clearly we disagree as to what is acceptable reasoning.
But I'd like for you to address something about your scenario. How is your scenario any different from simply increasing the speed of light during creation week? Think about it for a moment. If, as you posit, all distances expanded proportionally, and all light expands proportionally, then there would be no noticeable change in the size of the universe or characteristics of the light coming from stars. And as size is a relative term (two objects must be compared for size to have meaning), it means nothing to say that the whole universe has increased in size proportionally. Really you've just increased the speed of light (because you hold that it travels at the same speed it does today).
It actually gets very hard to describe distance and speed under this scenario because all references to distance and speed require a frame of reference in the universe. When you say the "lightwaves traveled at the same speed they do today", it really doesn't mean anything. Speed is distance over time, or conventionally meters/second. If the distance we commonly call a meter is proportionally smaller in a pre-inflated universe, we wouldn't notice any change whatsoever. So if light traveled the same number of meters per second as it now does, then light would be proportionally slower. Unfortunately for our ponderings, a meter is now defined based on the speed of light. :dead: :dead: