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Inflation Timeline

|< < Prev #3223 (March 23, 2026)

Title text: Depending what corners of the internet you hang out on, 'regular' may at times awkwardly coexist with 'sexy.'

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Explanation

Cosmic inflation is the theory that the early universe expanded at an exponential rate. This explains the "clumpiness" of the early universe, which is necessary to explain the formation of large-scale structures (e.g. galaxies) as the universe evolved.

"Regular" inflation refers to the economic process where the average price of goods and services increases over time. This is usually gradual, but can be very rapid during times of economic distress.

The comic puts both of these on the same timeline of the universe. Cosmic inflation occurs shortly after the Big Bang. Regular inflation only occurs during the time of human society when money is used. Because of the logarithmic scale of the graph, the cosmic inflation period, which is only a tiny fraction of a second, looks much larger than regular inflation, which has existed for at most a few thousand years.

Transcript

[Caption:] Timeline of Inflation

[A log scale timeline marked by "Age of the Universe (Seconds)" at each factor of 10¹⁰, ranging from 10^-40 to 10²⁰. A bar labeled "Cosmic" begins off-panel to the left and continues up to roughly 10^-32 seconds. A second, much thinner bar labeled "Regular" covers another period between roughly 10¹⁶ and 10¹⁸ seconds.]

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