Description

The discussions presented in this book are offered in the hope that they may assist the layman, the beginning student, and perhaps, even a few of the more advanced students of cosmology, in the achievement of an approach to the science which is based upon simple understanding rather than upon the complex and often confusing lattice-work of abstract mathematics which has been erected about it.
While it is true that the language of mathematics is a universal language, it is, nevertheless, a language which must be learned before it can be used or understood.
There are many persons in the world today who would like to acquire a greater knowledge and understanding of the nature of the universe about them, but who have never had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the language of mathematics to a degree that would permit them to follow the paths through which this knowledge is customarily presented.
It was principally for these persons that this book was written. Consequently, simple discussion, explanation and analogy will be substituted for mathematics, to the greatest possible degree. We will risk, thereby, the scorn of the mathematician, but may gain the gratitude and the comprehension of the non-math student.
Much of the material presented in these pages was taken from a series of lectures originally written for the Great Western University, and from the book, "Steps to the Stars," which was first published some years ago, but whose basic concepts are only now beginning to be accepted by cosmologists.
Since the study of cosmology embraces the microcosm as well as the macrocosm, we will begin this text with a consideration of the most minute and fundamental particles of nature, insofar as they are known and understood today. We will examine the forces which bind these particles together, but which may also, under certain circumstances, hurl them violently apart.