I am very confused about things my science book says about the expanding universe.?

Question

Every book I have seen has defined the universe as "everything". If the universe is expanding what is it expanding into? It would have to expand into even more universe. I understand that the red spectra indicates that things are moving away from us but that is drifting not expanding, right? If you could help me to understand this, it would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Ah yes, people like to give mumbo jumbo bullshiet answers to this question to confuse you further.

The thing is, we really have no idea. This is half the reason the answer is so confusing.

Scientists, like myself, have defined the universe as everything and like to say it isn't expanding into anything because, quite frankly, they don't know what's going on and it's easier to just define the universe as that for the time being. I don't know, neither does anyone else.

From recent science, we know that the universe is absolutely finite, therefore it's size is increasing; it is getting larger. This can also be seen by looking at microwave radiation maps of the universe.

So then, what is it expanding into? Well, if ANYONE could answer this question, they would probably go down in history as greater than even people like Einstein, Newton, Galileo...but the reality is, we don't know. All answers to this question are purely spectical and usually formed to fit a belief system that has been adapted from that person.


Personally, it's probably expanding into more space, which probably contains an indefinite number of universes and extends infinitely.

But that is only my personal view. Just like all other views.

Answer 2

The universe consists of time and space. The part the universe hasn't expanded to yet isn't universe, it is outside the universe, and things outside the universe don't interact with things in the universe. When we look at light it is light that is a "polaroid" of the object it left, it is almost unchanged, so it could be light from a star that doesn't exist, because it took over the life span of the star to reach us.
You can also think of it as a balloon. The surface of the balloon is present time, and the center of the balloon is the big bang, and the area the balloon hasn't expanded to is not the universe (just have to deal with nothing outside our universe, for physic's sake) because it is the future, which doesn't exist.

Maybe helpful, maybe not.

Answer 3

The books mean that the size of the universe is expanding like a balloon when you blow air into it.

Personally, I believe the expansion they are talking about is the universe as we know it. By this I mean, our ability to measure the size of the universe has increased over the years. 100 years ago we did not have the tools to measure beyond what one could see from the surface of the earth. Now we have sent rockets to the furthest planets in our solar system.

I'm not sure how the scientists measure the growth of the universe, but if they're just measuring the distance between stars, could it be that like islands on our planet, they just move around?

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

This one gives me trouble too. I always wondered how the universe could be infinite and still expanding. But then I found out that some scientists believe that the universe is finite, so that could explain it.

However, I think there may be a simple misunderstanding. If everything in the universe is getting further apart, then it's natural to think of the universe as "expanding", but if it's infinite that may not be correct. I sometimes think of it instead as "Every finite portion of the universe is expanding."

Answer 5

nicely performed for recognizing this confusion and not in any respect only wondering the universe is surrounded through empty area, which it isn't, because it has no edges (or middle) besides. i want to positioned it this way; The universe isn't increasing into area, area is increasing into the universe. The longer version is that new empty area keeps turning up everywhere contained in the universe on the very large scale, in between galaxies etc. This makes all of them get further aside without them honestly shifting everywhere. So at this massive scale, each and everything is turning out to be further faraway from each and everything else each and each and every of the time, because of the recent empty area. As an aspect, to my concepts, that is largely plausible because there is no absolute reference for area in area, for this reason not some thing 'has' to bypass - all positions are really relative to different products besides.

Answer 6

Yes, I too would like to believe that the universe is everything, ie. the Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and everything there is to it. Man itself has not seen nor know everything about the universe, when he says the universe is expanding it means he is learning more about the the universe that was not known before.

Answer 7

how will we define boundry of the universe?
something beyond which nothing exists.

now expanding universe means distance between any 2 things is increasing thus each thing is going away from evry other thing which in turn means the boundry is expanding
basically the free space between the oblects is increasing.
and it is expanding into what is an issue still to be resolved

Answer 8

I think what they mean is our perception of the universe is expanding. Initially the people were unaware of things beyond the stars and the moon. Than we started discovering other planets, comets, etc. As our technology advances the more we discover about the universe. So it is really our perception of what is in the universe that is expanding not the universe itself.

Answer 9

by the calculation the scientist did they understood that universe is just expanding how?cause every thing (galaxies,stars,..)in outer space is just going away from us with a great speed and we see lots of galaxies have accidents with each other from time to time but there are lots of theories which some of them say after expanding we the universe will impact but some of them say that it will expand without no stop.and if we study after Big Bang we see that the universe is just getting bigger and bigger.
i hope u got your answer.

Answer 10

The universe isn't expanding into anything. The space between any two given points is expanding.

The universe is not an object with boundaries within something larger, it cannot be comprehended by analogous comparison to ordinary bounded objects inside itself.