This question makes my head hurt!?

Question

It is hard to belive that space goes on forever. Is space like a giant sphere that just shot and gre in all directons? Is There an edge to space? Is the universe jjust like and atom or a particle of a GIANT world? Is the universe just a dream? Are we just like rats in a maze?

I know that there is no true answer and nobody actually 100% knows that there is an edge to the universe or if it is expanding forever. and when i the universe is a particle i ment like on men in black. Where our universe is just a marble.

Answer 1

I used to like to imagine that what we consider "atoms" in our world are really the universes of another smaller reality. And in that smaller reality their "atoms" are the same...on into infinity.

Not to imply that our universe is the beginning (or largest) point for all the others either. I think if it were true, that we would fall quite solidly into the huge middle ground, with very many other larger universes in existance, on whose version of an atom, we are but a tiny mote.

That way you have not only the "expanding universe" to worry about in size and concept, but also your place in someone else's atomic structure and the reality our existance has on our smaller, client universes....

If we destroy OURSELVES with nuclear war, do we destroy millions of smaller universes that rely on our continued existance for theirs?

Answer 2

Hi,
This is a very good question.
Space is a vast void of nothing. The best way I have found to explain it is:

Every living thing has cells that operate in different ways, space is the same. Each planet and star is a cell that operates differently to the other and the space in between holds the cells together.
Their are millions of solar systems like ours out there, but who is to say they look like us or who are more advanced than us.
Some have said that we are an experiment for an alien race and that this is the missing link. if this was to be true, then the world as we see it would be like us watching cells under a microscope.
In nearly all religions, they saw we are the children of the gods. Again if this was to be true, then we all were part alien in our genes.
But, I don't think that its just a dream, I would say it was more like a very long running TV series, and we are the actors following a script and playing a part in the show.
On all, say that which every answer was to be true, we all should protect the world we are from.

Answer 3

Space is defined as the relationship of one body to another measured in distance. The universe has space because it has objects. However, the universe is expanding into nothing. The edge of the universe is therefore the position of all particles which have made it farthest from the place where the expansion of the universe began. The particles are actually waves of electromagnetic energy, probably in the microwave region. They are traveling at the speed of light, which is therefore how fast the universe is expanding. If the expansion continues forever, then the universe will technically be nothing, since every particle will be surrounded by nothing. At this point, the size of the universe will be the diameter of a particular hydrogen atom. Maybe it exists inside you right now.

Answer 4

Well--the problem you're running into is that "space"--the universe--isn't limited to the three dimensions we humans are physically equipped to perceive. Consequently, no one can actually visualize what the shape/extent of space is (well, maybe Stephan Hawking can!).

Scientists use complex mathematics to describe what you are talking about--but the best the rest of us can do is use analogies--and let me emphasize this is an ANALOGY.

Think of the surface of a giant sphere--and imagine we were two-dimensional "stick-figure people" living on that surface. Our "universe" would be the surface of that sphere. Now the sphere--just like the real universe--is expanding (like a baloon that is being blown up--except it jsut keeps on expanding indefinately). To our 2-dimensional selves the universe would be "all there was"--but it would actually exist in an infinate higher-dimensional void. And--think about this carefully--if your 2-D self looks out at the "universe" he/she lives in, it will look likeeverything in the "universe" is getting farther and farther away--and it will look that way no matter where on the surface of the sphere he/she is located, because as the sphere expands, each point on the surface gets farther and farther away from every othr point.

The math tells us the real universe is something like that (admittedly, I'm oversimplifing this)--except we are 3-dimensional beings and our universe exists in at least a 5-dimensional relality.

Hope that helps! :)

Answer 5

If you subscribe to the Big Bang theory, then the universe is a continually expanding entity composed of stars, planets, comets, meteors, moons, dust, debris and nothingness. More nothingness than substance in area. We are just a tiny particle of the universe. The universe is not a dream it is a reality just not easily comprehended. As to being rats in a maze, I don't know about you but I am not. I am a child of God with a purpose.

Answer 6

Only the hardliners are a problem with the 'it is as it was written' mentality. The typical Christian isn't really bothered about the contradiction and stuff, its about the message on how to be a better person. For distinction i'm an athiest but i've had lots of experience with different types of christians. I can understand where you are coming from in the second part but as I said above, you read a book for the story not the words.

Answer 7

Have you ever seen the Man in Black?
at the end of both movies. We can be convinced that may be this world we are living in aren't so big as we may think. We may call those little tiny organism germs, but what if we are little tiny organism of something else. Hundred years ago, human think the earth is the center of the universe, and we think it's funny, right? But now we know that it's not true. Maybe hundreds years later, our children will laugh at us because of what we are believing today. So believe what you can because time will prove it all.
By the way, GREAT QUESTION!!!

Answer 8

I've seen this question asked and answered every day on YA. It is good to see all you young people giving it a shot.

I started my book on the topic with.

One way to check if you are explaining the Universe correctly, is that you must be able to start any where and any when and still reach the same conclusions.

Have fun and save your questions and your answers on hard paper.They are fun to read when you get old and look back at your early thoughts.

The pain in your head is your brain saying it is low on sugar. A small piece of chocolate melting in your mouth, helps you think longer. Taking a nap allows your subconscious take a try at your question. Amazing the answers you get as you wake up. But you have to write them down fast or you will loose them as those brain cells get back to their day jobs.

Answer 9

AS for as anyone knows, there is know beginning or end to space, it just goes on and on to infinity.
The reason that this concept gives people head achees is because, to us, every thing we can touch has a beginning and end.

As you should know, as telescopes get bigger and more powerful the Astronomers are able to see fight coming from much further away.

But remember this, the light that they are seeing now, started out billions of years ago, and is just now reaching the Earth, as for as we know, every thing that is more than a hundred light years away might not be there now.

I hope you have a big supply of head ach pills, after reading this answer.

Answer 10

We are not rats in a maze.

Space is not a particle.

The question of the universe being bounded is mathematical, and subject to debate. It can be infinite and still bounded.

Space is not a sphere. (A sphere is a solid, one geometrical point thick, where all points are equidistant from a single central point. Our solar system contradicts that instantly.)