i dunno about you guys but i find it so hard to imagine that space can go on for ever but then i cant imagine it ending because when we get to the end of summit we usually hit a wall or something but then there is something on the other side of it. is that the case with space.
2006-09-21 07:49:32 · 43 answers · asked by the faceman 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It goes Taco Bell, Macdonalds, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Macdonalds, Starbucks,Taco Bell, Macdonalds, Starbucks,... forever.
2006-09-25 01:13:03 · answer #1 · answered by car buyer 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This is complex, you are probably refering to the fact that the universe is expanding, if it is expanding, it must have an edge right? Sort of, Imagine a bunch of 2 dimensional people on a balloon, at first, the balloon is deflated, the people are close to each other, then as the balloon inflates, the people move away from each other, they are moving away as the balloon expands! Now the two dimensional people could walk all over the balloon and never find an edge (pretending the baloon is a perfect sphere) but they still would be able to see that it was in fact expanding. There is a similar situation occuring with the universe except that we are in the fourth dimension (not the third as is the common misconception) and the universe is expanding in the fifth. That's why I explained it as a balloon because you can't really fathom the fifth dimension just as a picture cannot fathom time.
2006-09-21 08:55:06 · answer #2 · answered by notallchipsarefood 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on what model of the universe you subscribe to. Physics is split on this issue into three main camps:
1) The universe goes on forever, and we can only experience our little corner of it because it is infinite. (and our little corner can still be millions of light years across, because really, what's 1% of inifinity?)
2) The universe is only describable by what is bounded by matter and energy -- that is, the universe itself was a tiny point of space a nanosecond after the Big Bang, and after that, it expanded outwards at enormous speed. In this sense, the universe does indeed have an edge, one that is moving outwards in all directions as the matter and energy of the universe flies away from the initial singularity of the Big Bang. There is nothing on the other side of that boundary, not even empty space, because the space itself doesn't actually exist until matter and energy occupy it.
3) The universe is finite and although it has been shown to expand, it loops back on itself in some sort of the 3-D shape. You'd never know it unless you were able with absolute certainty to travel in a straight line for trillions of light years and find yourself back where you started because you'd travelled around the universe itself. Obviously, we not exactly close to proving or disproving this one any time soon.
I don't know if we'll ever have a definitive answer for this one. Physicists are busy trying to prove one version or another through math, but it's not something we're able to prove experimentally just yet.
2006-09-21 07:58:59 · answer #3 · answered by theyuks 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ancient civilizations thought the earth was flat, and they speculated about the existence of huge waterfalls at the boundary of the oceans, or that the earth was the back of a tortoise, and so on. Things changed when it was scientifically shown that the earth was round. This explained why we can't see the boundary of the oceans: there is simply no boundary! We are now in the same situation, with the whole universe instead of the small planet earth. We can't see the end of it, and we speculate about the shape of its boundary. Few people suggest the boundary of the universe is made of "waterfalls", or primordial beams of light left over from the initial singularity, which traveled at the speed of light ever expanding along with the universe. But there are many other theories. Saying the universe is "globally flat" corresponds to saying it "goes on and on forever". Saying it's "spherical" means it has no boundary because, just like Columbus's earth, it curls up on itself, and traveling it in a "straight line" would bring you back where you started. The geometry of three-dimensional space allows for much more complicated patterns than the flat geometry needed to understand what the surface of the earth looks like, though. In fact, another possibility is that traveling in a straight line across the universe not only brings you back where you started, but it reverses you in a way that you (and your internal organs) look like the mirror image of the "you" that went for the trip. To complicate matters, the universe could be a mixture of such different patterns, smoothly glued together like the pieces of a puzzle, so that different regions of the universe look different. But we have yet to find such differences in astronomical observations. Much physics and mathematics research focuses on this theme, which is related to such topics as general relativity, string theory and supersymmetry, the Poincaré and uniformization conjecture, and so on.
2006-09-21 08:11:34 · answer #4 · answered by jarynth2 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Does a circle have an end??? This idea of the universe having an edge or an end has to be scrapped as this was the fifteenth century idea for the earth being flat and look how wrong that was!
The universe is more than likely globe shaped and when you get to the so-called "end" you would just return back to the "start".
2006-09-21 09:19:34 · answer #5 · answered by kowfeef 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Imagine the size of the earth to an ant. No matter how far it walks, there is no end. Our universe could be like that but curved and twisted on itself so you could think you are moving in a straight line but in fact be moving parallel to the line you were travelling decades before. Look up thread theory if you want to blow your mind but dont vibrate at the wrong frequency.
PS When the universe was first created, light travelled more slowly so work that one out.
2006-09-21 07:56:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
we can't see any further than 15 billion light-years away, but that doesn't mean there's nothing beyond 15 billion light-years.. my feeling is that we only see a fraction of the entire universe, but the universe doesn't go on forever.. I think that as you get to the very edges of the universe, you start getting into more hyperdimensional space and the lines between space and time start becomming blurred.. if you somehow could travel through this, you might end up on the opposite side of the universe, just like in the Asteroids video game.. although more likely as you get closer and closer to the edge of the universe, you would cease to exist.. but like I said, nobody really knows because we can't see beyond 15 billion light years..
2006-09-21 07:57:05 · answer #7 · answered by Byakuya 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Universe is composed of matter and empty space. Common sense dictates that the matter has to be finite but the empty space is infinite. As universe is without boundaries so its centre can be considered everywhere. We can say that earth is the centre of the universe or any other planet or star.
2006-09-21 08:06:18 · answer #8 · answered by Rustic 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Space is "closed" that is the edge is the beginning, it is like we are inside an infinate bubble, if it were possible to travel at hyperspeed in a straight line, you would end up back where you began.
Don't ask what is outside the bubble - I have no idea!
2006-09-21 19:33:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok, this cocept is hard to explain and imagine, but the shape of the universe is like an inside out ball (that is why it is infinate) so the real question is, what is at the centre of the universe?
2006-09-21 08:20:10 · answer #10 · answered by j d 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Think of it this way
Space is infinite
Our universe is currently finite expanding toward the infinite.
Space is a vacuum
Our universe has stuff in it which is expanding into the infinite due to the vacuum just on the edge of our universe.
2006-09-21 08:11:40 · answer #11 · answered by uqlue42 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋