How was the presumed age of the Universe determined?

1 Answer
Apr 23, 2018

Using Hubble's law.

Explanation:

Hubble's law states that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving:

vd

Because of this law, if it is extrapolated backward, it is implied that everything in the universe was once concentrated at one point- supporting the idea of the big bang and also makes it possible to estimate how long ago it was when everything was in one place- i.e the birth of the universe.

However, this is not using SI units, but rather the units for velocity is kms1 and distance is measured in Mega-parsecs MPc.

This equation, being linear must have a constant- Hubble's constant:

Ho

Making the equation:

v=Hod

The value of the constant varies throughout the universe but on a VERY rough estimate we can say that the value of the constant is :

Ho=70kms1MPc1

This constant allows us to estimate the age of the universe using the equation:

1HoT

However, the Hubble constant must be transferred into SI units for this to work...

So let's find the value of the constant:
70kms1=70000ms1

1 parsec= 3.26 ly= 3.08×1016m

1 Mega-parsec(1 million parsecs)=(3.08×1016×106m)

Ho=70kms1MPc1=70×103106×3.08×1016=2.27×1018

Inverse it to find Hubble time:

12.27×1018T

T4.4×1017s

T1.4×1010 years

Which is almost 14 billion years, but scientists often say that the value is 13.8 with an uncertainty of ±0.2 billion years, so we are within the acceptable range.

And that is basically how the age of the universe can be estimated.