The standard solution to the flatness problem invokes cosmic inflation, a process whereby the universe expands exponentially quickly (i.e. a grows as e λ λ t with time t , for some constant λ λ ) during a short period in its early history. The theory of inflation was first proposed in 1979, and published in 1981, by Alan Guth. His two main motivations for doing so were the flatness problem and the horizon problem, another fine-tuning problem of physical cosmology. However, “In December, 1980 when Guth was developing his inflation model, he was not trying to solve either the flatness or horizon problems. Indeed, at that time, he knew nothing of the horizon problem and had never quantitatively calculated the flatness problem”. He was a particle physicist trying to solve the magnetic monopole problem.”