stefen hawking opinines the universe is finite. i think it is infinite.what do you say ?

Question

It is a search.nothing final.your view welcome. we shall together attempt to explore.

Answer 1

If it's finite what's beyond its boundaries? And is that infinite or finite?

Answer 2

Finite..but not in the way you may understand. In order to explain the forces and symnetries which now exist, it has been hypothesised that a period of super-inflation occurred shortly (10-43 sec) after the big bang. This in turn necessitates the existence of a large, tending toward infinity number of other possible universes each with their own dimensions of space and time and 'physical laws' (including 'stillborn' ones where time does not exist)
However, if you consider that of all the putative number of particles (10^80) in our universe and all their large but finite number of configurations( quantum physics), there must exist a limiting distance (10^96 ly) at which the universes start to repeat and become identical. (yes, someone far away identical to you is doing the same thing exactly in a planet and universe exactly like this!). So possibly infinite, but eventually reaching total identity.

Answer 3

this issue, whether or not the earth is finite or infinite is almost too difficult for the human brain to comprehend, because we live in a world (the earth) where everything is finite. If the universe is finite, that means it has to stop - but then, what is beyond those boundaries? nothing? we'll "nothing" is technically "something" - its open space.

If the earth is infinite, that means it keeps expanding - but what what is beyond its expansion? kinda like when u blow up a balloon - the balloon is expanding, but there are things beyond the expanding boundaries of the balloon. is there anything beyond the expansion of the universe?

There will never be an answer to this question because our brains can't fathom such things because the laws we are accustommed to here on earth may not apply to the entire universe.

Answer 4

The Universe, is finite in the respect that all we can see of it, is circumscribed by the speed of light and the age of the Universe. Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second. The age of the universe is generally accepted to be around 13.7 billion years old. So, the furthest that we can ever see, is the age of the earth times the speed of light. This is known as the Observable Universe, or the Hubble Volume, and is around 45.6 billion Light-Years in any direction.
Because we are limited to the speed of light (or electromagnetic radiation)- as that is what is used to observe space- we can never, ever know if anything exists beyond that distance- therefore from a logical sense, the universe is finite.

Answer 5

If you believe that the universe is infinite, then you must abandon the idea of a big bang creation altogether.

It's all theory - the universe may indeed be infinite, but everything we think we know about it so far strongly suggests that it's actually finite.

Answer 6

I think Stephen Hawking's is a clever man, but i don't think i can agree with his opinion when it come to the universe is infinite, i don't believe something goes on forever, there nothing in science to suggest that anything is infinite, name me one thing that doesn't have a beginning and an end ? and where there's birth, there's also death, as to the theory that it all started with the "big bang" tells me that one day there will be the death of the universe, its just a matter of time.

Answer 7

I think Hawking is right. If the universe did have a beginning, and it looks very much like it does, than it is finite. It's about 800 Mpc across.

Answer 8

Since the effect of gravity is to mutually attract massive particles; and operates at vast distances ; the universe will 1 day become smaller; However, since all mutally attractive forces must have a dipole the same as a magnet - there has to be a counter to the attractive nature of gravity - i.e anti-gravity - my suggestion is dark matter - this would account for the absence of mass from the universe also - the fact that it is dark ie. not affected by light means that it may be spread as evenly as the stars and galaxies we see around us.

Answer 9

some contructive criticism. you should give your reason why you think the universe is infinite. stephan hawking and others like him give reasons why they would think the universe is finite.
anyway from what i read, before the universe (quantum theory has some interesting views on the 'before' but to date nothing proven) there was nothingness - no space, no time, no matter, and no energy. then a event (there are plenty of theories for why this event happen but again nothing proven) the size of a subatomic nucleus appear. inside that event is our universe everything started time, energy, matter and space. this event is known as the 'hot big bang theory' due to everything being so compressed into a small area the temperture was extremely hot, billions of degrees. the big bang similar to an explosion started to expand space. as it expanded the temperture cooled to form hydrogen atoms in turn they form stars and heavier atoms, these stars form clusters due to gravitational forces these clusters form the first galaxies and on up to what we can see today in the night sky.
now for the evidences that supports the big bang theory. it's important for you to understand at this point about 'space'. in the everyday sense we think of space as a gap of nothingness between one place to another. but on a universal scale it can be consider as tangible as matter (i will try to explain this better as i go on). back to the evidences, an astronomer edwin hubble in the 1920's using a spectroscope realised the Doppler Effect of all (except the local family group of galaxies) other galaxies where receeding from us, so obviously some time in the past they were closer together and if you go back far enough they most have being so tightly compact to as to form a single point i.e. the beginning of the big bang.
to be more precise the galaxies themsleves arn't moving but it's space that's expanding and therefore moving the galaxies. i will try to give you a comparative, making a cake with raisens - first you made the dough and then put the raisens into the mix. then you place your cake into a preheated oven. imagine the raisens are galaxies and the dough is space. as the dough expands it moves the raisens away from each other much the same way as space moves the galaxies through expansion.
the next piece of evidence was the hunt for the theorised remnant temperture from the beginnings of the universe (actually 300000 years after the big bang there was the final scattering when the temp. cooled enough for matter and radiation to seperate to expand freely out into space). proof of this came in 1964 from robert penzias and arno wilson by using a microwave horn antenna they found this temperture or better known as Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
(CMBR) reading at approx uniformly 2.7k above absolute zero. the reason why the temperture is so cold is because of space expanding- more space cooler the temperture.
suffice to say with the expansion of galaxies and CMBR would support the hot big bang theory. in turn this would support a beginning of the universe.
there are a few possible endings to the universe
1/ the universe will stop expanding and collapse back in to itselfand create another big bang. this theory is called the Big Crunch.
2/ the universe will keep on expanding faster and faster until it rip itself apart atom by atom, particle by particle and simple peeters out. this is called the Big Rip.
there other theories just as morbid.

going by the evidences to date the universe is not infinite.

ps. the concept whats lies beyond our universe is irrelevant. to say that there is would implied more space but space was created inside our universe. for all intent and purposes nothingness lies beyond our universe. of course there are theories but once again nothing proven.

Answer 10

I've always hear that the whole thing is expanding, hence is finite, because i can't conceive an infinite thing expanding into something, if something is expanding must have a border.
i think that the only infinite thing is space, which contains the universe which is expanding

Answer 11

i definatley think that it is infinate...because if it was not and there was some form of barrier that would mean something would most definatley lie beyond that and there would always be the constant wonder of what lay beyond that and if that was infinite. Also when you think that the universe is a vacum i think that it would be slightly obvious that nothing could go on past that.