The Age of the Universe - Sixty Symbols

How do we know the age of the Universe? Featuring Dr Becky Smethurst and Professor Ed Copeland.
Deep Sky Videos: / deepskyvideos
More links and info below ↓ ↓ ↓
Dr Smethurst is the "Sixty Symbols Ogden Fellow", supported by The Ogden Trust.
More Becky videos: bit.ly/Becky_Playlist
More Ed Copeland: bit.ly/CopelandGoesLong
MORE READING:
A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant - arxiv.org/abs/1710.05835
Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters -
arxiv.org/abs/1502.01589
Visit our website at www.sixtysymbols.com/
We're on Facebook at / sixtysymbols
And Twitter at / sixtysymbols
This project features scientists from The University of Nottingham
bit.ly/NottsPhysics
Patreon: / sixtysymbols
Sixty Symbols videos by Brady Haran
www.bradyharanblog.com
Music courtesy of Alan Stewart: bit.ly/AlanAlbum
Email list: eepurl.com/YdjL9

[@hpekristiansen]

When I took cosmology, the age of the universe was only 13.7 Gy and now it is already 13.8 Gy. Time sure flies fast.

[@blacklupus]

13.97 Gy. Heretic!

[@slikrx]

I seem to recall the age being listed as 14.5 Bn back when I was in Uni (1990-ish)

[@rebilacx]

I remember when the entire universe revolved around the sun and included all seven planets. Those were the days!

[@baley7]

hpekristiansen it was Tuesday as well!

[@leetakamiya2162]

Now it’s 13.8 billion and one day.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

Tuesday, March 6th, give or take a couple hundred million years. This calls for a discussion of precision vs accuracy.

[@ragnkja]

Sam I second this

[@sergiokorochinsky49]

give them some slack... they didn't say if it was in the morning or the afternoon...

[@Sonny_McMacsson]

I second +12/-8 this.

[@jasonslade6259]

Of course, they didn't even use the correct length of a year, which is 365.2422 days. They added about 110 million years of error just from that! lol

[@guymaudlin4055]

Dr. Becky is lovely.

[@MrYukon2010]

I wish I had a teacher like Prof. Ed Copeland when I studied. Please keep the videos coming guys. This channel is one of the gems on KZbin.

[@StreuB1]

Dr Smethurst is such an amazing addition to the team. And of course, everyone loves Prof Copeland!

[@ChaosPootato]

I see prof. Copeland, I press like.

[@figbender3910]

The universe can be measured by how big his smile is

[@Simp_Zone]

He's so loveable :)

[@wademarshall2364]

I am really enjoying Dr. Smethurst's contributions. Keep up with the excellent videos!

[@-yeme-]

7:57 is the probe saying that the rebels are on Hoth

[@handje1234]

That are some nice vertical writing skills at 6:19.

[@GameDr04]

Dr Smethurst's handwriting could be a font.

[@daves.9479]

Dunno how some people can be that tidy.

[@dezkelz]

Being someone who takes a lot of pride in the neatness of my handwriting, I don't know how people can't be that tidy.

[@wokeupinapanic]

Function over form, Dean.

[@Qermaq]

She’s practically perfect!

[@technodruid]

@@Qermaq ew

[@juvinilebud]

Copeland will be giving a talk at my institution this upcoming tuesday. So excited!

[@jacobshirley3457]

How was it?

[@jammyspreadd]

Brady your editing is so on point my man. The way you use editing to tell a coherent story like a script from seperate interviews is really good and makes learning all that more fun!

[@lojanak60]

what a great moment it is to be notified for a new Sixty Symbols video!! thank you!

[@korerahul7741]

Finally we can celebrate birthday of the universe. Thanks Becky. Love you.

[@TanookRoI]

I could watch Professor Copeland talk about the universe for days

[@yourlocalclosetedgaybestie3165]

ED IS BACK!!!!! AND ALSO BECKY!!!!! Edit: also assuming the statistics are accurate, big bang happened on Tuesday... wow!!! Brady is awesome!!!

[@Quantiad]

I could listen to Becky for hours.

[@koenth2359]

You drew that plot so quickly and neatly, even writing lopsided. And a convincing line through a point cloud like that! Wow.

[@dtrez3866]

Facinating what we are able to understand through mathematical calculations. Dr Smethurst and Dr Copeland were excellent. I apreciated their breakdowns/explanations.

[@Rangifulla]

We need more Dr. Becky

[@richardfrieman]

At 2:43, the professor mentions that white dwarf stars are a remnant of a "regular supernova." My understanding was that white dwarfs are the end product of stars too small to initiate a supernova. Have I been wrong my whole life?

[@ChenfengBao]

Probably a mistake on her part. Supernovae leave behind neutron stars or black holes. If any white dwarfs can be produced from supernovae, they must so rare that no references I've looked up ever mention them.

[@shtomer]

You are very much correct, Richardfrieman.

[@jroemling]

It was a long time since you did a video combining two interviews in this way. Love it! 😍

[@tejasmarathe8240]

Another great video from sixty symbols!!! One of the greatest science channels on KZbin.

[@CybranM]

Another great video, Dr Becky is the best :D

[@daturave]

I've missed ed doing all that physics stuff instead of these videos! ;´(

[@chicoktc]

Love Dr Becky!

[@BC3012]

In Dr B we trust 👌👏

[@evasuser]

"Another great video, Dr Becky is the best ", yeah, and cute too.

[@kylep7503]

Becky did a great job explaining in this video. Love these

[@KieranGarland]

Wonderful stuff. Thank you. Dr. Smethurst is the best.

[@NippoleonBonerparts]

Loved this video Brady. Well done

[@jackhiggy]

My favourite topic! Great to see someone I went to uni with on these videos!

[@victos-vertex]

Haven't seen the video yet, I just jumped out of bed because I saw the notification of a new video including Prof. Ed Copeland!

[@PhysicsPolice]

3:30 No, type 1a supernova involve white dwarf stars [1]. These objects are the end result of stars like our sun which end their lives *too small* to go supernova. Only with the added mass from a companion star do they go supernova. This happens once. Not twice. 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova 2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf

[@jeanbigboute]

I rewatched that bit 5 times before looking at the comments and wondered how that got past Prof. Merrifield. I thought he'd peer review these videos!

[@chillphil967]

PhysicsPolice happy someone else caught it!

[@TheBijatch]

Was looking for this. Sounded kinda weird at first, when I watched the video, but then I double checked wikipedia and my instinct was correct

[@mrspidey80]

Yeah that weirded me out as well.

[@dxutube]

Possibly your best video. Well done all in producing it :).

[@NotHPotter]

I think this is the most beautifully succinct video you've ever made.

[@tonyziz]

Quality content as always my man keep it up

[@cabbageman]

this was great, love the depth and fun

[@FATFILMSABLE]

COPELAND FINALLY! :D

[@mymicrowave]

Another humbling video. Thank you for this information.

[@Mateus_Coutoo]

This was a really great video!

[@flymypg]

This was so fun. What was a dichotomy has become a blurred mess. It is great to have such major discoveries still being made, even if they won't get me replicators and warp drive.

[@Pfhorrest]

Goddamn she can hand-draw nice graphs really quickly!

[@magicmel02]

Ikr! Beautiful handwriting, too!

[@doodelay]

She's great

[@ericsbuds]

fantastic video. one of the best ive seen.

[@anononomous]

Count the rings?

[@piorcanaldoyoutubedomundo]

One more awesome video! Thank you for that!!!

[@AlexCFaulkner]

Love your space videos so much

[@gaprilis]

7:21 Dr Smethurst turning Monica from Friends there for a second

[@NebRetalsJr]

gaprilis “I know!” lol

[@janwijbrand]

A Tuesday feels about right for a universe to be born on.

[@HartlandOrchard]

Awesome video thank you

[@AttemptingToBeBusy]

Absolutely loved this

[@DJFAYBAN]

march 6th is my birthday too.. gotta love Becky & Ed

[@SolarMoth]

its amazing that people have figured this stuff out!

[@remiaugerai203]

Excellent video

[@dejravian]

Excellent video!

[@Raisonbran648]

Great video, good job everyone.

[@bustedrav]

I get irrationally excited whenever I see a notification for a new sixty symbols video.

[@pietertalens1256]

I so adore Dr Becky :)

[@thestoiccontrarian8962]

I love the Star Wars reference muttered under your breath. It always bothered me that the film makers didn't bother to google that first

[@Ohenry92]

COPELAND! You're why I keep returning

[@KafshakTashtak]

Very nice video.

[@M31glow]

great explanation!

[@russellcannon9194]

The last bit was really funny. Kudos. Cheers, Russ

[@1_2_die2]

Thank you a billion times for this great channel (and the others too). Big Bang... on a tuesday... damn, I would have bet on a Friday.

[@Mycobob]

I ❤️ Dr Becky!

[@vartriiness]

Imperial probe droid sound, nice.

[@wilkatis]

That awkward moment when universe doesn't start on a Monday, 1st January :D

[@SorenVemmelund]

So Tuesday really IS the first day of the week. I'd be darned to have gone to work on all these dreadful Mondays my entire life then!

[@8BitThoughts]

Dr Becky is the best

[@Aceshifter]

It was a wednesday my dudes

[@Rekko82]

It was Sunday, it is in the Bible!

[@ragnkja]

I suspect the Universe predates our calendar 😉

[@LeonelMendesCogita]

Your name is cobalt, you have a pic of dan for your profile, and you frog memed this! Congrats!

[@philipcain5093]

Cobalt blue f

[@1224chrisng]

EXPLOSION WEDNESDAY

[@torch_k8110]

Happy birthday Prof. Copeland!

Good to see prof. Copeland :)

[@wierdalien1]

Eds back!

[@nickwoo2]

whoa watch out here come the young eathers

[@usadefcon1]

Her handwriting is so perfect it's distracting... in a good way.

[@yvesnyfelerph.d.8297]

If you call that perfect...whatever

[@JaseCurtis]

Never could get the hang of Tuesdays...

[@AsifMehedi]

Dr Smethurst is so lovely and smart.

[@jefflucas_life]

So perfect, Tuesday.

[@ProfRonconi]

I so enjoy these videos. All of them, but particularly those that feature Dr Smethurst or Prof Copeland, because they gently lead me to the edge of the bottomless pit of my ignorance (I know, I'm a masochist).

[@00Skyfox]

That's funny. Back in the 90s there was an episode of Animanaics featuring Death. He said something about the beginning of time. The Warners asked him when that was. He said, "I think it was a Tuesday. Very few people know that."

[@CharlesTheClumsy]

Makes me a bit sad how little I know about the math of astrophysics.

[@agent475816]

Charlie Clumsy You can learn almost everything on youtube.

[@kcwidman]

2:46 Are white dwarfs remnants of supernovas? I’m pretty sure white dwarfs come from the out layers of the star slowly evaporating (for lack of a better term) over a long period of time.

[@lowlize]

You're correct, white dwarfs are not the result of supernovas. It's strange because she even confirms her mistake later, when she talks about 2 supernovas being involved (3:36).

[@aaronr.9644]

Really cool

[@wokeupinapanic]

Oooooh, happy birthday, professor!!!

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

I've always been told, if you're going to start something new - always do it on a Tuesday..?

[@NerdGlassGamingPA]

I love how they pronounce " xxxx - ation " words :D the whole team sounds wonderful. I sometimes show some part of videos such as these to teach my kids about different accents :D

[@dungbeetlemovies]

Well worth all the effort to finally discover the day of the week the universe was born on! :D

[@juliocardenas4485]

Fabulous 🚀

[@mrhorhay101]

Loved the Star Wars sounds

[@IamGrimalkin]

One interesting idea is the possibility of finding optical counterparts for black hole mergers. If they could be found, I would think the number of "standard siren" data points would go up by quite a lot.

[@Mernom]

Unfortunately no such things are likely to exist for black holes. They can even swallow their own Supernova during birth.

[@Hossak]

Thanks for the video - fantastic stuff! Do you think you will get into trouble sampling that droid noise from "The Empire Strikes Back" at 7:57? :)

[@JohnDoe-vq8bg]

You guys are awesome! Go science!

[@calvingao1987]

I understand the units work out. Can someone explain to me why the inverse of the Hubble constant is the age of the universe?

[@henrikwannheden7114]

Hahahaha The Imperial Probe Droid was unexpected, but appreciated.

[@Ojisan642]

Professor Copeland should do audiobooks of children’s bedtime stories.

[@Querent2000]

Thanks. That was a lot more comprehensible than a video on a similar topic that I just watched. I would still like to have all the assumptions involved explained, though, such as that business about the "standard candles". You say something like, "We know how bright they should be." You don't say HOW "we" know that.

[@tomasbeno4213]

Tuesday it is!! ... or was :) [great vid, thank you, Becky's cute as ever]

[@antoineroquentin2297]

Well, at what time happened the big bang? I hope not too early in the morning, I'm more of an evening person.

[@MOSMASTERING]

4:42am I slept through it and woke up just in time for the creation of the moon.

[@dr.spectre9697]

we need WAY more sixty symbols videos

[@Simp_Zone]

She's pretty :) And smart. Also Dr Copeland is so adorable

[@mvicenzi]

There is also a third way to measure Hubble's constant by analysing the light coming from distant quasars subjected to a strong gravitational lensing. The project is literally called "H0LiCOW" (H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL’s Wellspring).

[@phsopher]

Not very tactful, trying to find out the exact age of the universe. It doesn't look a day older than 9 billion as far as I'm concerned.

[@SorenVemmelund]

LOL :-D

[@MrDouchoid]

Woah, an upload :O

[@katymaloney]

The Big Bang, the ultimate throwback tuesday! xD #tbt