Looking through binoculars, would you be able to see your own back? What would travelling through the universe be like?
2006-10-05 00:25:42 · 21 answers · asked by martin48732 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
That would depend on the shape the Universe would have. I'll explain with an example.
Imagine a two-dimensional plane. An ant walking on it can go in any direction, without finding a boundary. Secondly if it keeps walking in one direction, it will never come back on the same place. The plane is infinite, without bounds. In such a Universe you would not be able to see your back.
Next the surface of a two-dimensional sphere. This time the walking ant again will not come to a boundary, but he will, after some time, come back to the some place. The sphere is without bounds, but finite. In this Universe you *can* see your back.
Next lets move to our 3D Universe. We are short-sighted ants too. Our telescopes can not see far enough to distinguish if we are in the three-dimensional equivalent of the sphere of the plane. But in a 10 mile Universe we would be able to make the difference.
2006-10-05 01:28:45 · answer #1 · answered by cordefr 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
do mean see ur own back as in body back, cos you can do that if you have a mirror, u don't really need binoculars....
but if the universe was so compact then everything would still be as it is today we wouldn't even notice...for we (the planet and humans) being part of the universe would have to shrink in size along with every other planet and star system to fit into the 10 miles... so our view of the space would be just the same as it is today...
2006-10-05 07:47:54 · answer #2 · answered by thenickistar 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the universe and everything in it was scaled down so that the universe had a diameter of 10 miles, from humanity's shrunken perception, it would look the same, as the other objects in the universe would be in the same proportion.
2006-10-09 05:44:38 · answer #3 · answered by Ian 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
DriverRob gave a good answer. The density and temperature would be immense and even the atoms in your binoculars would boil into subatomic particles.
Everything would be almost perfectly uniform with just the faintest hint of structure which will eventually give rise to the large scale universe.
Basically the only answer to your question would be bright white.
2006-10-07 16:51:59 · answer #4 · answered by m.paley 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's all relative, To support life as we know it you have to hold your breath for 20 minutes and whistle at the same time but don't dribble, dribbling will cause a chain reaction so don't wear any chains for a day or two otherwise the universe will revert to a singularity, but I doubt we'd notice because it's all relative.And the Guy that thinks we are a mere atom in the finger nail of a vast beast, I'd say you're losing it. Whatever you do, don't dribble.
2006-10-05 10:01:38 · answer #5 · answered by casey 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would probably be what it is now. If the universe is only ten miles in diameter, we would be proportionally small.
You will only see your own back when there is enough matter to curve the space... but if the space is only ten miles wide... there might not be enough matter to curve it, provided current physical laws still holds.
Theoretically, when the universe was ten miles in diameter... it was hot and we do not exist.
2006-10-05 07:32:14 · answer #6 · answered by CaiZ.StarGazer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it contained everything that it contains at present, just proportionately smaller - then binoculars/telescopes would be smaller too, so it would look exactly the same.
If you were the same size that you are now - you'd be dead - as you'd be too large to breathe in the oxygen from the proportionately smaller planets or burned to a crisp from the heat of just one of the stars!
2006-10-05 07:31:45 · answer #7 · answered by hypno_witch 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How do we know it's not ten miles wide? I have this theory that our solar system is but an atom in the fingernail of an enormous giant. It's the right shape with the sun as nucleus and the planets as electrons. Or am I just losing it?
2006-10-05 07:37:43 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was about 10 miles wide about one microsecond after the big bang.
Temperature about 10^10 C and consisting almost entirely of quark particles just beginning to form more familiar, larger particles such as protons.
It wouldn't look like anything you could describe.
2006-10-05 14:25:07 · answer #9 · answered by DriverRob 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would look like any other ten mile wide solid.
You could not see your own back because it would conform to the laws of physics of any other ten mile wide solid.
And, you've probably guessed it, travelling through it would be like travelling through any other ten mile wide solid.
2006-10-05 07:39:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋