1 Watch the video and put the words into the gaps in the text.
Everyone loves the idea of parallel
universes - maybe it’s the appeal of an ideal 1____ where you have second
chances and things turn out differently - an alternate reality where you do
get into Hogwarts and the Star Wars prequels aren’t made and you finally plug
in your asymmetric computer cord correctly on the first try... But is there
really a place in science for such wistful speculation? I mean, if «the
universe» is everything that there is, you can’t have two 2____ of it, right?
Otherwise the pair would really be everything and what you started off
calling the universe, wouldn’t it? The problem here is terminology: 3_____
speaking informally often say «universe» when they really mean «4_____
universe» - that is, the part of the whole universe that we’ve so far been
able to see. And it’s perfectly fine to talk about multiple different
observable universes. For example, an 5____ near the edge of OUR observable
universe will see parts of the Whole Universe that we cannot yet see. But
that’s a well-understood question and not what physicists normally talk about
when they discuss 6____ observable universes, or «multi-verses».
So let’s cut to the chase: in physics,
the word «multiverse» normally refers to one of three distinct and largely
unrelated proposed physical models for the universe - none of which has been
tested or confirmed by experiment, by the way. The three «multiverse» models
are:
Type 1: bubble universes or baby 7____
hole universes. This is the most 8_____ kind of multiverse. The basic idea is
that perhaps there are other parts of the universe which are so far away that
we will never see them (or are inside black holes so similarly we will never
see them). This kind of model was created as an attempt to explain why our
universe is so good at making stars and 9_____ and black holes and life. As
the argument goes, if each of these separate mutually un-seeable «bubbles» in
the universe had slightly different 10____ of physics, then by definition we
could only exist in one that had the right physical laws to allow us to 11____.
If you’re not convinced by this logic, don’t worry too much: there’s not yet
any experimental 12_____ for this kind of multiverse.
Multiverse type 2: membranes and extra
dimensions. Inspired in part by the inability of the 13_____ of string theory
to 14_____ the right number of dimensions for the universe in which we live,
string theorists proposed the idea that perhaps what we think of as our
universe is actually just a 15______ surface embedded within a larger
super-universe with 9 spatial dimensions. Kind of like how each page of a
newspaper is its own two-dimensional surface 16_____ within our
three-dimensional world. And of course, if space had 9 dimensions rather than
three, there’d be plenty of space for other three-dimensional 17_____ that
appeared, like ours, to be universes in their own right, but, like the pages
of a newspaper, were actually part of a bigger whole. These kinds of surfaces
are called «18_____» or «branes» for short. And as a reminder, there is not
yet any experimental evidence for this kind of multiverse.
Multiverse type 3: the many-worlds
picture of 19_____ mechanics. Surprisingly, physicists still don’t fully
understand how the collapse of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics happens,
and the many-worlds 20_____ makes an attempt at explanation by proposing that
every possible alternate 21_____ for the universe is real and they all happen
in an ever-larger, ever-branching way. Like, a universal
choose-your-own-adventure where every possible story happens! If this were
the case, we might not realize it because we’d be stuck living out just one
of the infinitely many possible lives available to us. In some ways,
“many-worlds” is similar to the “bubble multiverse” model by proposing «maybe
anything that can happen, does. And we just happen to exist in the series of
happenings that were necessary for us to exist». If you’re still not
convinced by this 22____, don’t worry: there is not yet any experimental
evidence for this kind of multiverse.
Of course if you want to
get imaginative, you could also combine several of these models together into
a multi-multiverse. A new super-23_____ model based, itself, on speculative
and experimentally unconfirmed models. But that’s not to say we couldn’t test
these multiverse 24_____. For example, if our observable universe were really
just one of many disconnected bubbles or membranes and if it happened to 25____
with another bubble or membrane some time in the past, then that collision
would certainly have had some sort of 26_____ on what we see when we look up
at the night sky. On the other hand, the many-worlds interpretation might be 27_____
fairly soon since experimentalists are becoming increasingly able to 28______
and control ever-larger quantum mechanical systems in their labs - systems
that 29_____ the line between the quantum realm and our everyday experience.
So as always, we must remember that 30_____ is science, not philosophy; and
in our attempts to explain the universe that we observe, we have to make 31_____
that can in principle be tested - and then test them!
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multiple
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observable
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versions
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physicists
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alien
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world
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straightforward
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laws
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exist
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galaxies
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black
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evidence
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membranes
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surfaces
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predict
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embedded
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three-dimensional
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mathematics
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hypothesis
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quantum
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logic
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timeline
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collide
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hypotheses
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tested
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effect
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speculative
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approach
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claims
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manipulate
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physics
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2 Vocabulary focus. Study the words and word combinations, practise
their translation, spelling. Check your knowledge
in the test. Play vocabulary game and set your own vocabulary game record.
3 Mark the following statements as True or False.
1 String theorists proposed the idea that our universe is a
three-dimensional surface.
2 Baby black holes and bubble universe models have been proved using
scientific evidence.
3 Physics can describe how the collapse of wave function in quantum
mechanics happens.
4 There are four models of multiverse.
5 In physics the term “force” means the same as “observable force”.
4 Answer the Questions.
1 How many universes exist?
2 What is the most straightforward kind of multiverse?
3 What cannot physicists understand?
4 What is the second type of multiverse?
5 What would happen if our universe collided
with another universe?
6 What evidence proves the multiverse theory?
