An aspect of "big bang" that is fairly well accepted is that initially the Universe expanded at an extremely rapid rate, faster than the speed of light, but soon settled down to a slower rate of expansion. In terms of contraction this can be described as an initial contracting of space at a very fast rate, which quickly slows. With this, the contraction of space based upon the equation c=1/t, or c=2/t, can still be maintained, but it should be considered relative to the radius of a "hypothetical universe", or a universe within the Universe, which is contracting relative to the initial radius of the Universe. I call this universe hypothetical because it's contraction does reduce the amount of space in the perceived Universe. The rate at which this contracts, though, partly determines the rate at which the Universe appears to expand. This rate, which will vary with time, will be related to the basic rate of contraction for space. This will be developed at a later time.
Another factor that affects the apparent expansion of the Universe is gravity. The contraction model for the structure of space-time changes our view of the nature of space as compared to the conventional view, in that, in the contraction model, any distance between entities naturally seems to increase relative to our standard of measure for space, since our standard of measure is contracting. Consequently, in the absence of a force that attracts entities toward each other, or gravity, entities separated by any amount of space will always appear to move apart, and at a rate that is dependent upon the distance between the entities, with the greater distance causing the greater velocity. This means that gravity not only causes an acceleration of objects toward each other, but also overcomes this natural expansion. Einstein's general relativity theory, in fact, also implies this, since it predicts an expanding Universe. Contraction theory, however provides for the possibility of a greater rate of expansion. Gravity described in terms of contraction will be addressed later.
The question now arises: "How does the contraction model differ from big bang in it's description of the perceived expansion of the Universe?" The answer lay in the affect that universal expansion and contraction have on the apparent expansion of space in the Universe, and the perception of this affect. As presented earlier, only the apparent universe can be perceived from any particular point in the Universe, and, the apparent universe can be considered to be expanding into the actual universe, and contracting back to it's original size. However, here it is assumed that universal expansion and contraction are occurring in a uniform manner throughout the Universe at rates of c and -c. What has not been taken into account is that as the velocity of light, and thus, also, the rate of universal ex-con motion, contracts relative to the radius of the Universe, universal ex-con motion may not occur in a uniform manner throughout the Universe. If this is the case, the result would be a mixing of the apparent and actual universes, with different areas of space expanding and contracting at different rates, and the range of these rates being determined by the ex-con rates of the apparent and actual universes (and gravity).
There are reasons that ex-con motion would affect the space of the Universe in this way. As previously presented, expansion and contraction are not perceived because they occur almost simultaneously, and, it was assumed that the space that they occur in is being observed almost instantaneously. This would be the case in the initial stages of the Universe's evolution, when the velocity of light is large relative the radius of the Universe. In later stages this would only hold true for space of localized areas. In regards to more distant areas of space, near instantaneous observation is not possible, since our perception of different areas of space in the Universe is dependent upon our perception of energy, which travels at a finite velocity of c. Consequently, we see a "delayed" representation of distant areas of space, and the further the observed space is from the observer, the greater the delay in the observation. In contraction theory this delay has consequences on our perceptions of distant space. The space through which energy travels contracts with the passage of time. The wavelength of energy must also contract, and unless it contracts at the same rate and in the same manner as space, the energy will change as it passes through space. There are reasons that it does not contract in exactly the same manner as space. In contraction theory, the relative velocities between reference frames have been described as an imbalance in expansion and contraction. However, velocities between points in space are at least partially just apparent velocities, due to the contraction of our standards of measure. Also, in order for distant areas of space to be considered motionless in the conventional sense relative to a particular point in the Universe, they must have a velocity toward that point, equal to the apparent velocity caused by the contraction of our standard of measure. This is where the apparent velocity which is caused by the contraction of space is different in nature than actual velocity. In the contraction model of the Universe, apparent velocity is usually counteracted by a return velocity of equal magnitude. This counteracting velocity puts distant space into the same non-dilated frame of the particular point in the Universe that is considered to be motionless (center of the frame). However, this return velocity is not necessarily perceived. Apparent velocity is itself only perceived because of the following. An observer detects the velocity of a distant object because of a shifting in the wavelength of the electromagnetic energy emitted from the object toward the red spectrum, the redshift effect. In contraction theory, this effect is amplified, because as electromagnetic energy that is emitted from a distant source that has a relative velocity moves through space, it's wavelength naturally expands relative to the size of space. This is because the rate of the contraction of space through which it moves is greater relative to the rate at which the wavelength contracts. The degree of this expansion depends upon the velocity of the object and amount of space traversed by the electromagnetic energy. The rate of this expansion is directly related to the rate of apparent velocity, which is related to the distance between areas of space. Below I illustrate this.
The ex-con rates of the apparent and actual universe can be "mixed" in the following way. With space contracting according to the equation c=1/t, the apparent velocity for any point in space located at a distance (d) from a point in space that is considered to be motionless is equal to (d/R)c, where R is the radius of the apparent universe. If each point in space also has a velocity toward the actual universe, and at a rate determined by it's position in the Universe, and also equal to (d/R)c, then the effect would be the expansion, or, stretching, of the apparent universe into the actual. Consequently, each point in space located at any distance from a given point would not only have an apparent velocity due to the contraction space, but also a motion outward due to the expanding of the apparent universe into the actual, resulting in a total expansion velocity of 2(d/R)c. The natural contraction described earlier would return the point toward it's original position at a velocity of (d/R)c, resulting in a net expansion velocity of (d/R)c. Below I illustrate this.
e. Mass and energy
The above descriptions apply to the structure of space-time. Matter and energy content can be quantified in a similar manner, and, in fact, it turns out that matter and energy can be considered to be simply a form of space-time. As stated earlier, matter, even though it appears to be motionless, should be considered to have an outwardly expanding motion at a rate of 2c and an inwardly contracting motion, this at the rate of -2c. It is actually the point in space where matter is located that has this motion. However, the mass of matter itself can also be described in terms of the same type of expansion and contraction motion. Here it is not necessary that the rates of this expansion and contraction be restricted to 2c. They can be any rate, and as long as the rate of expansion is equal to that of contraction, matter will appear to remain motionless. The quantity of mass can then be defined in terms of expansion and contraction rates, with the minimum possible mass expanding and contracting at 2c and -2c respectively, and larger masses expanding and contracting at greater rates.
Time dilation has the effect of imbalancing expansion and contraction rates, this causing velocity for the mass, while also increasing these expansion and contraction rates in such a way as to increase mass by a factor of u, where u is the time dilation factor.
Electromagnetic energy can be quantified in the same way as matter. The difference between matter and electromagnetic energy is that overall contraction affects the position of a photon differently than that of matter, giving it a velocity of c.