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I often read about the concept of the "Fine-Tuned Universe". From my understanding, the universe's existence is sensitive to the values of certain fundamental physical constants, which are observed and measured.

How does the process of determining what our universe looked like, if those values were changed, work? How do we know that if the,e.g. speed of light, were faster or slower our universe would look much differently?

Aaron Ullal
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Typically, computer models are run which contain the fundamental constants. You run the model with the constants we have, then run it with the tweaked constants, and look for differences.

In some cases, estimates can be had by doing the calculations in simplified form "by hand".

niels nielsen
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  • Awesome, that's what I thought. Do you have any resources to understand how these models work or to see them in action? – Aaron Ullal Sep 22 '22 at 06:10
  • I do not, but in general the models trace the time evolution of the universe from an instant after the big bang to later times, to see how big it gets and how long it lasts. for example, if the gravitational constant is a little too big then the universe collapses back on itself before galaxies have a chance to form; if it is a little too small then stars do not condense and begin fusing hydrogen, and so on. – niels nielsen Sep 22 '22 at 06:21