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	Olbers's Paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		The current Universe is ~13.7 billion years old and has an observable size of ~45 billion light years.
		The fact that the Universe has a finite age is the principal explanation of Olbers's Paradox.
		It is interesting that in asking and answering the seemingly trivial question, "Why is the night sky dark?" one could have inferred that the Universe was expanding and that the Universe had a finite age (or at the least the stars and galaxies had finite ages).
	zebu.uoregon.edu /~imamura/123/lecture-5/olbers.html (993 words)

	Olbers' paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Olbers' paradox, described by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers in 1826 and earlier by Johannes Kepler in 1610 and Halley and Cheseaux in the 18th century, is the paradoxical observation that the night sky is dark, when in a static infinite universe the night sky ought to be bright.
		One explanation attempt is that the universe is not transparent, and the light from distant stars is blocked by intermediate dark stars or absorbed by dust or gas, so that there is a bound on the distance from which light can reach the observer.
		Paul Wesson, "Olbers' paradox and the spectral intensity of the extragalactic background light", The Astrophysical Journal 367, pp.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Olbers'_paradox (1075 words)

	Olbers' paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		We should not exist because either (i) the universe is infinite and we have been burnt to a crisp or (ii) the universe is finite and we have all been squashed in a *big crunch.
		Although this contradiction was discussed by colleagues of Newton, the German philosopher Heinrich Olbers reignited interest in it the 1820s and it became known as Olbers' paradox.
		Olbers' paradox provides is one of the main sources of support for the big bang model.
	www.321books.co.uk /encyclopedia/cosmology/olbers-paradox.htm (207 words)

	Olbers' paradox
		Olbers' paradox, described by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers in 1823 and earlier by Johannes Kepler in 1610 and Halley and Cheseaux in the 18th century, is the paradoxical statement that in a static infinite universe the night sky should be bright.
		One explanation attempt is that the universe is not transparent, and the light from distant stars is blocked by intermediate dark stars or absorbed by dust or gas, so that only light from a finite distance away can reach the observer.
		However, the paradox stands if one assumes that stars are constantly being created randomly across the infinite universe, shine for a finite period, and die.
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/ol/Olbers_paradox.html (568 words)

	Talk:Olbers' paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Actually, Olbers did not propose the paradox to show that the universe is finite, but that the universe is not transparent, being filled with dust that blocks the light of distant stars.
		Olbers (believing the universe to be static and infinite) proposed that the darkness of the night sky showed that the universe was not transparent.
		I moved this to Olbers's paradox with a lower-case p because that is the usage followed in the many hundreds, maybe thousands, of pages titled "Smith's theorem", "Smith's law", "Smith's principle", "Smith's hypothesis", etc., etc. See list of eponymous laws (or list of mathematical topics, for that matter).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Talk:Olbers'_paradox (3155 words)

	Olbers' paradox: Encyclopedia topic (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Olbers' paradox, described by the German (German: A person of German nationality) astronomer (astronomer: A physicist who studies astronomy) Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers: heinrich wilhelm matthäus olbers (october 11, 1758 - march 2, 1840)...
		[follow hyperlink for more...]), is the paradox (paradox: (logic) a self-contradiction) ical statement that in a static infinite (infinite: infinity is a term with very distinct, separate meanings which arise in theology, philosophy,...
		Some see the darkness of the night sky to be evidence in support of the Big Bang theory (Big Bang theory: (cosmology) the theory that the universe originated 20 billion years ago from the cataclysmic explosion of a small mass of matter at extremely high density and temperature).
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /reference/olbers_paradox (1135 words)

	Olbers's paradox - Britannica Concise
		This paradox is widely attributed to Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (1758–1840), who discussed it in 1823, though Johannes Kepler first advanced the problem in 1610 as an argument against the notion of a limitless universe with infinite stars.
		liar paradox - Paradox derived from the statement attributed to the Cretan prophet Epimenides (6th century) that all Cretans are liars.
		Olbers' paradox - in cosmology, paradox relating to the problem of why the sky is dark at night.
	concise.britannica.com /ebc/article-9373967?tocId=9373967 (537 words)

	It Seems to Me...: olbers' paradox
		In the 1800s, an astronomer named Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (I think he was German) made an observation that became known as Olbers' paradox.
		In the same way that the sound of a train whistle is lowered as the train moves away from the listener, light from a star shifts to the red end of the spectrum and eventually out of the visible spectrum as the star moves away from the observer.
		Olbers never thought to prove that the universe was infinite because no one could imagine a finite universe.
	www.brucealderman.info /blog/2005/10/olbers-paradox.html (360 words)

	Olbers's Paradox - Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum
		Olbers's Paradox realates to the fact that the night sky seems to be very dark, in spite of the fact that because of the number of stars it contains it should be bright.
		Olber's paradox is an old paradox from the steady state theory, which most of you stated.
		Oh, Olber's paradox does not exist at all and it's not mentioned as a direct proof for BB theory.
	www.bautforum.com /showthread.php?t=26714 (4297 words)

	BBC - h2g2 - Olbers' Paradox - A765029
		Although called Olbers' paradox, the problem originated with Johannes Kepler, who is best known for his work on the orbits of the planets around the Sun.
		Olbers realised that actually the light reaching us should be infinitely bright, rather than as bright as the sun as de Cheseaux had proposed.
		Olbers' paradox is important because it brings Cosmology into contact with the observable world.
	www.bbc.co.uk /dna/h2g2/classic/A765029 (1214 words)

	Physics Myths and physics facts
		Drag and d'Alembert's Paradox: According to the classical theory of an ideal fluid flow, the drag force for objects moving through a medium should be zero.
		Olbers' Paradox: If the universe is infinite in time and space (as logic and common sense would suggest) then, according to Olbers Paradox, the whole nightsky should be infinitely bright (or at least as bright as the surface of the sun).
		Paradox: In several areas of physics, especially Quantum Mechanics, apparent paradoxes are used as an argument to justify an irrational, dualistic interpretation of the theory.
	www.physicsmyths.org.uk (8102 words)

	Olbers' Paradox - curiouser.co.uk
		However, the paradox is widely credited to the German astronomer H.W.M Olbers who presented his paper on the subject in 1823.
		However, Olbers argued that if this model of the universe were correct the sky should not be dark but rather very bright indeed.
		Bizzare as it may seem in today's light, upon this realisation of the implication of his theory, and despite Olbers' unresolved paradox, Eistein decided to modify his theory to suit the perception of a static universe rather than modify his perception of a static universe to suit his theory, and thus resolve the paradox.
	www.curiouser.co.uk /paradoxes/olbers.htm (665 words)

	Philosophy Forum > Olbers's paradox.
		I do not think the conjectured decay of photons really helps with the paradox as long as conservation of energy is assumed as the energy from the decay would still have to go somewhere and would heat up the location where the decay occured which would then radiate more photons.
		It is worth mentioning that Obers paradox still applies in a finite universe which is closed, it is irrelevant in a non-static (expanding) universe, and in one of finite age so it is not very relevant anymore.
		Olber showed that the universe could not be infinite in both time and space.
	forum.darwinawards.com /lofiversion/index.php/t5229.html (5723 words)

	5: Olbers' Paradox
		The basic statement of Olbers' Paradox is that, in a stable, infinite universe, the night sky should blaze with the light of the stars that lie in all directions, even those far away.
		One of the arguments against the classic statement of Olbers' Paradox is that there might be dust clouds that hide the light and heat of distant stars.
		The response to this (as you may have guessed by now) is that, over time and in a stable universe, the stars would heat the dust clouds to the stars' temperature.
	www.arachnoid.com /sky/olbersparadox.html (466 words)

	PhysOrgForum Science, Physics and Technology Discussion Forums -> Olbers paradox
		Olbers paradox, is the universe infinite or not
		In Olbers paradox, which had to do with the darkness of the night sky.
		The paradox can be resolved by assuming a finite age for the universe, for in that case we would be able to see only those stars whose light has had time to travel across space to earth since the beginning.
	forum.physorg.com /index.php?showtopic=4605&view=getlastpost (1229 words)

	Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers
		Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (October 11, 1758 – March 2, 1840) was a German astronomer, physician and physicist.
		He was born in Arbergen, and studied to be a physician at Göttingen.
		Olbers' paradox is named after him described earlier by Johannes Kepler in 1610 and Halley and Cheseaux in the 18th century, is the paradoxical statement that in a static infinite universe the night sky should be bright.
	www.mlahanas.de /Physics/Bios/HeinrichWilhelmOlbers.html (1113 words)

	The 3K Microwave Background and the Olbers Paradox
		This paradox can be solved by the fact that a large amount of interstellar matter (dust and gases) have been shown to be at 3 K. Therefore, an observer having his eyes sensitive to the Planck radiation at 3 K would see that the night sky is bright, as expected by Heinrich Olbers.
		His paradox no longer exists, since the sky is uniformly bright at that wavelength, as observed by Penzias and Wilson (3).
		Naturally Olbers' apparent paradox exists at visible wavelengths because then, that radiation is screened by dark matter.
	www.newtonphysics.on.ca /OLBERS/Olbers.html (455 words)

	Olbers' Paradox
		At first, such a query seems ridiculous and begs the obvious answer, "because at night we face away from the Sun." However, the question is profound and the answer is far from obvious.
		In the absence of such observations, we cannot be sure that Olbers' first assumption is untrue.
		The solution to Olbers' paradox came with the discovery that the universe is expanding: that distant galactic groups are receding from us.
	www.asterism.org /tutorials/tut09-1.htm (1374 words)

	The Paradox of Olbers' Paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Olbers' paradox is the puzzle of the darkness of the night sky, which should be ablaze at every point if the universe were infinite and filled everywhere with stars.
		Ever since the German astronomer Wilhelm Olbers reformulated the puzzle in 1823, he and many after him tried to save the presumed infinity of the universe.
		This is the paradox of the paradox, or the paradox of the scientific mind in the presence of a more than scientific puzzle.
	pirate.shu.edu /~jakistan/JakisBooks/ParadoxOfOlbersParadox.htm (192 words)

	Olbers's Paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Olbers thought that if the universe was infinitely large and infinitely old no matter what direction we looked we would see a star and therefore the night should not be dark.
		But it is - and that is the paradox.
		This may be true if the density of the stars (galaxies) in the universe was great enough.
	novan.com /olber2.htm (384 words)

	Olbers's Paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Another way to look at the problem is to say that we want the night sky to be as bright as the surface of the Sun.
		This is much less than needed to produce Olbers's Paradox.
		It is interesting that in asking and answering the seemingly trivial question, "Why is the night sky dark?" one could have inferred that the Universe is expanding and that the Universe has a finite age (or at the least the stars and galaxies have finite ages).
	zebu.uoregon.edu /~imamura/209/apr7/olbers.html (1022 words)

	Olbers' paradox -- Encyclopædia Britannica
		in cosmology, paradox relating to the problem of why the sky is dark at night.
		The advance of set theory and discoveries involving infinite sets, transfinite numbers, and purely logical paradoxes caused much concern as to the foundations of mathematics.
		Explains the paradox of the dark night sky suggested by Heinrich Olbers.
	www.britannica.com /eb/article-9056958?tocId=9056958 (838 words)

	Olbers` Paradox (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		If we could see the whole sky as Hubble sees this tiny area, the sky would be white or almost white (Olbers`s Paradox claims that, in an infinite universe, the sky should be white to the naked eye).
		The reader may not agree that the universe is infinite but in my opinion the "paradox" cannot be used as an argument in favor of a finite universe.
		I have found different interpretations of Olbers`s Paradox; however most appear to be saying: - : : "Light from matter separated by enormous distances in space in an infinite universe should appear to us as an accumulation of light.
	www.theory.caltech.edu /people/patricia/wwwboard/messages/185.html (1457 words)

	Fondation on Olbers' Paradox - Physics (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Many of the advances in science have been due to the discovery of paradoxes and the eventual paradigm shift that resolves them.
		On occasion a paradox is thought to be resolved and the scientific community closes the book on it.
		However, at http://home.comcast.net/~h_olbers/ is a presentation of the points and consequences of the paradox.
	www.okka.biz /_Fondation_on_Olbers_Paradox-26093359-288-a.html (989 words)

	I.15. Why is the sky dark at night? (Olbers' paradox) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		A common suggestion for resolving the paradox is to consider interstellar dust, which blocks light by absorping it.
		However, absorption by interstellar dust does not circumvent this paradox, as dust reradiates whatever radiation it absorbs within a few minutes, which is much less than the age of the Universe.
		The resolution of Olbers' paradox comes by recognizing that the Universe is not infinitely old and it is expanding.
	www.faqs.org /faqs/astronomy/faq/part9/section-17.html (226 words)

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