Ebook: Calibrating the cosmos: how cosmology explains our big bang universe

This book explains in ... non-mathematical language the measurements and the interpretation of the resulting data that have led to the current understanding of the origin, evolution and properties of our expanding Big Bang universe. It examines the ideas and methods that scientists have used, and bridges the gap between advanced technical books and the large number of popular books that skim or omit ... this ... material. Theoretical concepts are central to [this book]. Among them are the symmetries known as homogeneity and isotropy that characterize our universe on its largest scales. A consequence of these symmetries is that only one quantity, the scale factor, is needed to describe the growth of the universe from its infancy to the present time. The behavior of the scale factor depends on a set of measurable quantities denoted the "parameters of the universe," and their determination, recounted in the book, has been one of the most significant cosmological developments in recent years. [The book] explains how model universes are generated, and how they function as the templates against which ours are compared and analyzed, [and how this is beginning to tell us which of the many theoretical universes corresponds to reality -- to the universe in which we live. No mathematical background is needed to read and comprehend [this book].-Dust jacket.;Introduction, the splendid science -- Measuring distances, on the Earth, in the Solar System, to the nearby stars -- Light, radiation, and quanta -- Stars, attributes, energetics, end stages -- Expanding universe -- Homogeneous, isotropic universes -- Parameters of the universe -- Early universe -- Conjectures -- Appendices: Powers of ten; Primordial nucleosynthesis; Elementary particle zoo -- Chapter notes -- Glossary.