Does space itself move?

Answer 1

That's a very good question. One for Einstein and Hawkings.

I would tend to think it is, indeed, possible, but very hard to prove.

One such "proof" would be a car. The inside of a car has space and in motion that space moves.

This gets into multiple universe theories. A car is one universe and the roadway is another universe.

Inside the car you are "not in motion" not in the typical sense, even though you are travelling 40, 50, 60 miles per hour.

A bus is a better example. It's 40 feet long. You stand at the rear. The bus is in motion at 35 MPH but once it gets going you don't sense the inertia. You are approaching your bus stop and you walk to the front of the bus. From YOUR relative standpoint you are walking at 3 miles per hour, from the stand point of a person on the street looking at you, you are moving at 35 MPH plus 3 MPH or 38 MPH.

Now, in that is the space not moving? Is that 40 foot long span of bus not moving?

You are both traveling through space and exiting within space that is another universe.

Within the confines of that bus, more or less, molecules of air are not moving much at all. They certainly are not moving at 35 MPH. If they were you're hair would blow around.

This is a deep concept.

Now, is "space, space" moving.

The known rules of Newtonian physics and relatavistic physics both state that, say for example, a molecule of Hydrogen would be "deformed" if it were in motion or travelling at "great speeds" and there is speculation that WE, on the EARTH, around the SUN in the Milky WAY could be travelling as fast has half the speed of light.

If this were so, then a hydrogen atom would have an elongated shape, with the back part longer than the front part.

If that atom were not moving then it would be relatively constant and uniformed in shape.

If WE and HYDROGEN travel at the same speeds, WE would also have that elongated shape. Probably FAR more so than we thing from our RELATIVE position on the EARTH, as compared to an OBSERVER on a STANDING STILL position out there who watches our SOLAR SYSTEM go by and sees the RED SHIFT due to our speed.

The thing of it is, let's say, for argument's sake, that we are an experiment in a sphere of vaccum that is stationary, because it has a glass ball around it so nothing inside "moves" relative to the outside world, as in the BUS.

Gees, this is making me think deeper than I ever thought before. I'm starting to feel like Einstein and Hawkings!

The "big bang" happens in the center of this vaccum inside this ball and matter spews out from the dead center, but slowly.

Now we have MATTER moving at the speed of light and VACCUM in the ball not moving at all or very little.

Now if that BALL is inside a moving bus, is the space inside the ball actually moving?

This is deep thinking.

Once the bus has been in motion for a while and inertial normalizes the stuff inside the ball tends to cease motion.

We can prove this with a snow globe.

Once the bus starts the snow in the snow globe moves a little because of inertia, but after 10 minutes it settles and takes no further sensation of the momentum, until the bus stops.

The water molecules might definately be moving, thus the vaccum in our universe ball might also definately move.

If that is the case then "space" (vaccum in our globe" moves and moves in a differt direction and for different reasons then the hot, gaseous plasma caused in the center by the "big bang."

This is theortetically possible.

Hence, space moves.

The opposite is also true and can possibly also be proved by other examples.

In order for motion NOT to exist, there can be NO inertia, NO gravity, NO electromotive forces.

Does such a universe exist? Theortrectically, yes I supposed it can.

In a practical sense of Newtonian and Relatavistic thinking. No, it can't.

We would have to come up with a new theory, a new way of looking at the "univeverse" to have a NO MOTION element that is not affected in ANY WAY by the "big bang" of plasma release.

The universe as the cosmoligist seems to see it is based upon a certain amount of "nothing" (is that in motion or rigid) and a certain amount of "something." The something DEFINATELY moves, but does it move THROUGH or does it DISPLACE the nothing!

That's an interesting question.

If it displace the nothing, then the NOTHING MUST MOVE.

BUT, this is all based on NEWTONIAN and RELATAVISTIC laws of physics.

Einstein showed that NEWTON wasn't always the right way, because RELATIVITY sometimes bends or breaks NEWTON's rules.

A new theory on things would therefore, BEND or BREAK the rules and laws, theortical as they are, of relativity.

Damn that's deep.

Your question has to be one of the best ever!

Answer 2

Great question.

I suppose it depends on how you define motion. Usually we think of motion as the movement of an object through the medium of space. Since it is hard to envision a medium through which space moves the question becomes complicated.

That said, the expansion of the universe, with all the galaxies moving away from each other is rather analogous to a blueberry muffin in your oven.

As the muffins bake, the batter expands (moves) making all the blueberries get farther and farther apart. So too is the expansion of our Universe. All the galaxies are getting farther and farther apart as evidenced by the "Doppler Effect" where we see a 'red shift' in the spectrum of Galaxies. The red shift, towards a lower frequency of light, indicates that galaxies are moving away from us.

So - simply put, the other 'blueberries' in our cosmic 'muffin' are moving apart (Translation: The galaxies are moving apart). The explanation for this is the expansion of space-time itself, which may reasonably be intepreted as motion.

Another example of motion with respect to space is the 'warping' of space created by large bodies like stars and to a more extreme level, blackholes. These objects 'warp' space like a bowling ball thrown on a canvas trampoline warps (and therefore moves) the fabric.

Keep studying science!!!

Answer 3

Space itself is an unlimited "void" in which all things within it "travel". But the black void of space does not move because that is exactly what it is: a black void. And the only way that we can tell that we and other masses in the void of space is actually moving, is by our annual relative "position" with the stars as we travel in our own "path" around the Sun. If space (the void) was actually moving, there would be no way of "measuring" its movement, because there would be nothing to compare it with.

Answer 4

WOW! all of the above answers are 100% WRONG! Space is constantly expanding (thus moving). And in theory it will continue to expand till it splits open like a balloon and implodes on it self. New satellites that measure radiation from the Big Bang have proved this. Direct quote from NASA "Radiation from the Big Bang fireball has been traveling across the universe, cooling as space expands."

Answer 5

This is a great question and was one that occupied scientists in the 19th century and was part and parcel of the concept of an aether, that was thought to be the substance of space through which light waves propagated. The theory was tested by Michelson and Morley who devised an experiment to determine if the earth moved through the aether.

Since the earth moves in a circular orbit it would move in opposite directions through the aether six months apart -- or on opposite sides of the orbit.

When all was said and done, it was discovered that there was no aether and the speed of light was determined to be a constant with no preferred frame of reference through which any body in the universe moves.

This is really a great question and much has been written on it from the classical philosophers through contemporary scientists.

Answer 6

jednci is mostly right and Bryan pretty much nailed this one on the head.

That space is expanding is a very well founded idea in both experiment and theory. The issue is that yes space is expanding, but the gravitational pull of matter in galaxies causes them not to expand along with space (when I say space here I mean the vast expanses of it not significantly affected by anything's gravitational pull).

This puts us in a situation were it is like we are on a balloon that is getting bigger, but we are staying the same size. This is very similar, but not identical to, us shrinking. So space (the type of space I mentioned above, not the type of space between you and the moon) appears to be moving to us, but it's not really correct to say that it IS moving relative to us.

Hopefully that helped and didn't just confuse you more.

Answer 7

Space is not empty. It has a fabric to itself which ultimately ties it together. The fabric of space fluctuates as per the matter moving within it: stars, planets, asteroids, micro atomic particles, etc.

Answer 8

OUTER space? Nope. Vacuum city out there. Everything in it moves. Ever see 2001: A Space Odyssey? Good sci-fi flick for its time. The dude 'blowing up' in the elevator was cool. Lack of air-pressure will do that to you.

Answer 9

Does space move? Define space. The fabric of time considered to be space?

Answer 10

That's just crazy. Things only have position *in* space. space itself doesn't have a position in space. That's crazy. You're crazy man.