(scratching, slamming)
- So, okay.
- Quite clearly, we're in an ice rink.
(smashing)
- Oh my goodness.
- To reveal the extraordinary
truth behind how the universe expands,
my volunteers will need to brave the ice.
- We're gonna play ice hockey?
- No. (laughter)
- We've got our galaxy jerseys laying out.
- Oh yeah, the galaxies are on the jerseys.
We're gonna be the galaxies today.
- We realize that there is some ice skating equipment.
So that's I guess it would appear that
we're going in the ice rink with them.
So that quite, quite scary.
- Well let's go, I guess we're
putting our skates on.
- Their challenge is to replicate
the big bang on ice.
To work out why galaxies that are farthest
from earth move fastest.
(scratching)
First they will need to get their skates on.
(dramatic electronic music)
But I've made an unusual addition
to their skating gear.
- On the table, there are leaf blowers
with balloons on them, which is very odd. (laughs)
- Should we do it?
- Yeah. - Let's give it a go.
(air blowing) Wow.
- Will my volunteers work out
what is making galaxies move this way?
- I think we should be on the ice.
- Yeah, let's go on the ice.
- We figure that if we head to the center of the ice,
that would be a good place to start
in order to find out how we're actually
going to re-enact the big bang.
- I can hardly do this!
- I know, - With a leaf blower.
- I know, it's so hard to do with a leaf blower.
(revving motor)
- Oh, I'm getting the hang of this.
- Okey dokey.
- We need to find a way to use these balloons
and these leaf blowers to recreate
how the galaxies are moving.
- It's an explosion, essentially
- Right.
We're thinking that we need to cause
some sort of explosion.
- What do we have that is expanding?
Obviously these balloons.
- Right.
- Do we put these balloons together, maybe?
And then that is the cause of the expansion?
- So if we expand it against each other,
we go backwards? - Let's see.
- We would go backwards, oh I like it.
- We direct all of our blowers toward each other.
- [all] One, two, three.
(motors revving, yelling)
(laughter)
- We have to have it a little bit higher.
- Agreed.
- Oh my gosh. (laughing)
All right guys, one two three.
(motors revving, laughing)
- Unfortunately, the thing that lets us down
is our ability on the ice.
(laughter)
- My volunteers may need a different strategy.
- We need some help. - Yeah.
We enlisted the pro team.
- We wondered if you could step in as our stunt men.
So we approached these guys and asked for three volunteers
to take our place on the ice.
We squeezed them in together,
positioned the balloons where we wanted them
and on the count of three, asked them
to switch them on.
Okay, three two, one, action.
(motors revving)
Yeah! - Nice.
- That was great, guys thank you.
It was clear that we had a principle that was working,
but it wasn't quite the big bang
that we were looking for.
Do you want to scale it up?
- Bring more players?
- Oh more balloons, more players? Maybe.
- That's all right, let's bring everyone in.
(guitar riff)
- Now my volunteers are beginning
to grasp how an expanding universe could work.
- Would you guys give us a hand?
- Yeah.
- Will their scaled up simulation
bring them closer to finding out where
the universe began?
- Let's have some fun.
(upbeat electronic music)
- We'll start with our three guys that we did
but then we'll create a line, a queue if you like
in behind each of the three guys in the middle.
- How many do you have there?
- I have five.
- Okay, are you ready guys?
- [All] Yeah.
- All right, in three, two, one action.
(motors revving)
(triumphant electronic music)
- So the balloons in the center inflate
as the balloons were expanding,
the further back you were from the center,
the more speed you had, the more distance you traveled.
- What do think this is?
- I think this explains why the galaxies
that were further away were moving faster,
- Faster, that makes sense.
- Faster than they once were in the beginning.
- We discovered that those galaxies
are all moving away from each other,
and the further away they are from each other
the faster they're moving away.
- That was very interesting to see.
- So what does this mean
for the way the universe is expanding?
- We started to think about what is actually
causing the players to move.
- If the galaxies are all moving
away from each other, what is it about the balloon
that makes that happen?