"Cosmic Repulsion" by Stephen Petersen

Essay by adammills1College, UndergraduateA+, December 2003

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The book Cosmic Repulsion in a sense reminds me of a book I have just recently read my last semester at Saint Mary's College of California. The book I am referring to is The Elements of Euclid. I notice a resemblance due to the fact that both are full with information and both try to prove a point to the reader. The amount of information from page one to page sixty on 8 ½ by 11-inch computer paper is truly remarkable. Even the thought of trying to understand every concept mentioned throughout the unfinished masterpiece seems like an impossible task for a newly accustomed student to the field of astronomy. I can remember when not to long ago I was in middle school and was pondering the thought that I knew everything there is to know about our solar system as long as I knew the phrase "My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas" and I could name all nine planets in a row.

Now after taking a college level astronomy class and reading the highly educated book I look up at the stars in the middle of the night and think to myself, "I know nothing". I never would have even imagined there are so many unanswerable questions about the solar system I have until finishing all sixty pages of the book Cosmic Repulsion.

The book is written in such a unique approach that along with reading it, the reader will also have an understanding of the story Moby Dick. After the introduction, the book wastes no time in making the claim that the universe is thought to be infinite. However, In my opinion it is hard to accept the possibility that the universe is infinite. Everything we know today has boundaries of ones freedom. For...