Framing Time & Acceleration

When we speak of the expanding, accelerating universe, how might we frame it, in terms of time? Perhaps we might frame it like this:

The start-point of time is not zero. It is like the moment we stop a speeding car by pressing our foot to the brake.

As we ease our foot off the brake and come to a stop, two things are happening at once.

We go from speeding up against a background that is slowing down,

To slowing down against a background that is speeding up.

Here we see hot and cold regions that flip along the ecliptic in our Cosmic Microwave Background:

Large-angle Anomalies in our Cosmic Microwave Background.
Image: Craig J. Copi

The full moon feels like the start-point to me—the foot pressed all the way to the brake—where the exploding force and the opposing force are both at their highest.

The new moon feels like the opposite—the foot lifted all the way off the brake—where the exploding force and the opposing force are both at their lowest.

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