Activity 1.

3 CMB: Warm cushion chairs and Sherlock Holmes

In the activity performed in the classroom, Event 1 is matched with Room C wherein
the seats have varying temperature in no particular order, Event 2 with Room A, the
temperatures of the seat are gradually increasing, with the seat nearest to the table being
the hottest, and Event 3 with Room B, the seats have uniform temperature. The said activity
illustrates the concept of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) which supports the Big Bang
Theory. When we place the activity in the context of the universe, the CMB represents the
heat left over from the Big Bang. It is a radiation that fills the universe and can be detected in
every direction. Before the creation of CMB, the universe was a hot, dense and opaque
plasma containing both matter and energy. Photons could not travel freely, so no light
escaped from those earlier times. Scientists theorized that if the Big Bang theory was correct,
the universe would be filled with background radiation left over from the creation of the
event. Therefore, the relationship between temperature and time was taken into
consideration because as scientists argued, the change in volume of the universe is directly
correlated with its hotness and coldness.
The CMB provides insight into the composition of the universe as a whole. Through
this, it was found that after the Big Bang, the temperature of the universe is uniform to
better than one part in a thousand. This uniformity is one compelling reason to interpret the
radiation as remnant heat from the Big Bang. It just shows that we live in an expanding
universe which had indeed begun in a hot, dense state and had been growing and cooling
ever since.

Source: NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Website

<https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/>
 The Story of the Creation
Bilaan (Mindanao)

In the very beginning there lived a being so large that he cannot be compared with
any known thing. His name was Melu, and when he sat on the clouds, which were his home,
he occupied all the space above. His teeth were pure gold, and because he was very cleanly
and continually rubbed himself with his hands, his skin became pure white. The dead skin
which he rubbed off his body was placed on one side in a pile, and by and by this pile became
so large that he was annoyed and set himself to consider what he could do with it.
Finally Melu decided to make the earth; so he worked very hard in putting the dead
skin into shape, and when it was finished he was so pleased with it that he determined to
make two beings like himself, though smaller, to live on it.
Taking the remnants of the material left after making the earth he fashioned two
men, but just as they were all finished except their noses, Tau Tana from below the earth
appeared and wanted to help him.
Melu did not wish any assistance, and a great argument ensued. Tau Tana finally won
his point and made the noses which he placed on the people upside down. When all was
finished, Melu and Tau Tana whipped the forms until they moved. Then Melu went to his
home above the clouds, and Tau Tana returned to his place below the earth.
All went well until one day a great rain came, and the people on the earth nearly drowned
from the water which ran off their heads into their noses. Melu, from his place on the clouds,
saw their danger, and he came quickly to earth and saved their lives by turning their noses
the other side up.
The people were very grateful to him, and promised to do anything he should ask of them.
Before he left for the sky, they told him that they were very unhappy living on the great earth
all alone, so he told them to save all the hair from their heads and the dry skin from their
bodies and the next time he came he would make them some companions. And in this way
there came to be a great many people on the earth.
___________________________________________________________________________

Source: Mabel Cook Cole, Philippine Folk Tales (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1916),
pp. 139-140.