Cosmologists are also able to estimate the rest-mass density of the visible universe which is about 2 x 10**-29 gm/cm3. Assuming visible mass represents only 10 % of the total mass of the universe, the estimated luminous and nonluminous mass of the universe, assuming no addition of energy since Creation began, would be equal to about 5.4 x 10**55 gm. (4) This is equivalent to a rest-mass energy, E = M0* 2**, of about 4.8 x 10**76 gm-cm2/sec2.

Allocating this amount of mass into individual hydrogen atoms (first and simplest element composed only of a proton and electron–total mass of about 1.673 x 10**-24 gm) gives an estimate of the total number of particles in the universe of 3.2 x 10**79. Re-expressing this results as powers of two gives a total particle number of about 2264 which is the very close to the theoretical number postulated by Arthur Eddington [(3/2)*136*2256 or 2264] using relativistic quantum mechanical methods. (5)

Whether this agreement is fortuitous or a verification of relativistic quantum mechanics remains to be seen. More likely, what the agreement is saying is that our current estimates concerning the physical parameters of the universe and the methods used in computation are accurate enough that they agree with a complete theory of Creation (relativistic quantum mechanics).

While measurements upon the light emitted by distance stars provides an estimate of the maximum spatial extent of matter in our expanding universe, one other distance is of some importance. This radius is defined by the maximum distance over which a photon of light (created at the beginning) could have traveled over the life time of the universe, about 1.42 x 10**28 centimeters (3.5 times greater distance than matter has traveled). This radius is called the horizon distance and represents the maximum distance over which causal information could have been sent from the initial singularity to the boundary between our universe (manifested energy) and the unmanifested and unenclosed quantum void. (6,7)

One method utilized by cosmologists to understand the ‘play of Creation’ is to attempt to predict what qualities the universe could have had near the first moments of creation. For example, it is possible to back calculate the radius of the early universe using the fact that the universe cools adiabatically (see Chapter 4) as it expands. Thermodynamic principles show that as a gas expands, its temperature decreases by one-half each time its volume doubles. Therefore, we can apply this concept to see how big the universe was at a particular early time, say 10**-35 seconds after Creation began (the time point when the electroweak-strong force had began to decompose into its separate parts). At that time the temperature of the primordial fireball was about 10**28 degrees Kelvin. Currently it is about 2.7 degrees Kelvin. Therefore, the universe has expanded by a factor of about 10**28 giving an estimated volume at 10**-35 seconds of about 10**-1 cubic centimeters or a radius of about 0.4 centimeters (treating the expansion as an ideal gas occurring within an expanding sphere,

   V initial = V final*(T final / T initial)**1/a                 (5A)

where a is defined as the ratio of the heat capacities of a typical ideal gas (of about 4/3) minus one. (8)

Regardless of the method of calculation, it appears that the universe at 10**-35 seconds of age is much larger than its horizon distance of 3 x 10**-25 centimeters. Explaining this just how this came to be troubled physics since the early days of Einstein. A reasonable answer was not provided until Alan Guth described the inflationary universe. (9)  This subject and the subject of a suitable picture for the geometry of the universe will be discussed later in the text. Note: My model for the construction and basic operation of the material and psychic worlds is much different in 2016).