Cosmic Inflation Project Help!!!!!!!!!

[AstroPie]

I am planning on doing a project in cosmology, I have narrowed my ideas down to Cosmic Inflation but need good information on it so that I can come up with a true topic/question, if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.

[Craig_Bridge]

Cosmic Inflation is pure theory from 1980/1981. This is one of those ideas that lots of people haven't found any means of proving or disproving.

IMO: While this theory might interest you, producing a high school level science fair project in this area is highly unlikely.

[AstroPie]

I understand your point, Cosmic Inflation is theoretical. Although the chances of it being true is highly likely; that is if the Big Bang is true. Scientists already know that by looking out greater light years away in the sky they can look farther back in time, they can not look fully back to the creation of the universe, but by looking back far enough in time they may see the big bang occur. If so Cosmic Inflation exists, doing an experiment on this is probable but with the right equipment, which is where I understand your point. This is why I would like to narrow down my idea on something that is possible and can help gather information on the theory. But before this can occur I need to think outside of the box and come up with a possible question. Because of this I am going to research a lot, I have already emailed 6 cosmologist profesors, a physics engineer, and an astronomer that is CEO of his company and works with NASA ocationally. As well as I have a science teacher that specializes in AstroPhysics who is willing to help.

As unlikely as it may be for me to make a project on Cosmic Inflation I would like to try.

If anyone has a better way of going with it, or has/knows research and information on the topic that would be great.

[TheScienceJerk]

One point there: The Big Bang is not true. So cosmic inflation is highly unlikely.

1. What made the Big Bang? It had to come from somewhere.
2. If there was a Big Bang, scientists continue their theory saying that it exploded into dust particles that grouped together into planets and stars. The problem with this is that chaos cannot make organized planets so to speak. Those 'dust' particles would merely go away from each other. They wouldn't merely group together.

[AstroPie]

I get why you have a tough time believing in the big bang, but I can't figure out any better directions to go with Cosmology. Dark Matter, Inflation, Radio Waves, etc. Does anyone know a better way to go with the project.

[Ray Trent]

I'm not sure where "TheScienceJerk" is getting his or her information, as the Big Bang is the most scientifically accepted cosmological theory for the beginning of the universe (and the idea that dust particles wouldn't "clump" ignores the force of gravity, which I hope is not in question here .

In any event, however, it is quite likely to be difficult to design an experiment about inflation. That said, probably the only approach that might work is to reanalyze some of the data on the smoothness of the cosmic background radiation. The reason inflation arose as a theory was that it's very hard to model a universe that is so anisotropic (i.e. the same in all directions), exactly *because* things tend to clump together, but if the universe expanded dramatically in a sudden way, that would allow for the smoothness that we observe.

Hmmm... while it wouldn't be a *direct* cosmological experiment, there might be some way to create an experiment that could demonstrate that rapid expansion tends to smooth out what would otherwise clump. I have no idea whether this would work, but it's possible that drops of dye on soap bubbles might be made to smooth out by expanding the size of the bubble rapidly, but might stay more clumped if the bubble expands smoothly.

Experiments that start with the phrase "I have no idea whether this would work" are often the most interesting, though .

[AstroPie]

Thanks for the help, I see you understand the big bang very well; the most scientific model, and also the latest (1981 inflation model was made).

I have a good idea where I will go with this, my only concern being: the experiment, observations, results, etc. I will start off be researching important words like "vacuum energy inflation early universe scalar potential" and then asking simple questions like "what is the driver of inflation?" "when do we think it happened?".
After this i will search about the connection with particle physics (keywords such as "unified forces" and "early universe phase transition"), and once I reach that point I will be working with cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).

Once I get an extremely good understanding of CMB, etc, I will come up with a bigger question and use experiment(s) alike the bubble one.

[AstroPie]

I now am getting a greater understanding of cosmic inflation, but I still am working on a main question; is this a good question?

Can different types of energy/proton movement differ in radiation? If so are there similarities with Dark Energy?

[Craig_Bridge]

IMO: The primary goal of doing a 9-12 grade Science Fair Project is finding a hypothesis that you can actually run an experiment on and determine if your hypothesis is true, false, or undetermined. The real goal is to learn how to actually do a valid science project with the resources you have and/or within a small budget from beginning (deciding on area), through refinement (coming up with a hypothesis that is testable within your time/budget) to the end (generating a presentation). There are lots of exteremely interesting theories that simply can't be tested within the framework of a Science Fair Project.

I strongly recommend that you take another look at the ScienceBuddies Science Fair Project Ideas and see if there is anything of interest to you. These project ideas were put together to assist with finding something that can actually be done within the typical time/budget of a Science Fair Project.

[AstroPie]

The thing is: science fair, when it comes to cempetetive competitions is about how much your project contributes to science, doing a project on science buddies is non creative and doesn't get you anywhere in a competion. When I emailed a bunch of professors they said I can do a project on it I just need to start small and work my way up.

Some people think it is imposible for me to do this project others think it isn't, the feedback from the positive members are the ones I put in mind.