h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Because the assumptions are wrong there need not be an answer.

<quote>
Olbers made four assumptions: (1) space is Euclidean; (2) the laws of physics that apply on Earth apply to the Universe as a whole; (3) the Universe is static (i.e., neither expanding nor contracting); (4) the Universe is spatially and temporally infinite. It is now believed that all four of these assumptions are either incorrect or inaccurate.

<quote>
the Universe is not exactly homogenous: it contains galaxies distributed in a complicated hierarchy of large-scale structure.
e.g. The Great Wall - A sheet of galaxies which stretches more than 500 million light-years across the sky.


Alji (Member of The Guild of Wizards @ U197895)

Would you care to expand on your point 2). Don't the laws of physics as on Earth apply in Earthlike environments everywhere?

2 does not refere to Earth, or earthlike environments. It is the phisics in the universe. e.g. the speed of light.

Alji (Member of The Guild of Wizards @ U197895)

< (2) the laws of physics that apply on Earth apply to the Universe as a whole >

I seem to see 'Earth' in there! Can I be imagining it? What would be wrong with your observation even if it were, in fact, there?