The universe is infinite! What ever happened to that idea?

Question

When I was a student, this idea was sold as fact. Scientist have an an annoying and arrogant habit of presenting theories as facts. The most idiotic thing that I have read by Stephen Hawkins was informing his readers that science would soon explain everything! To me this showed him to be less of a genius and something more of an idiot. It is a totally unscientific statement.

Answer 1

just remember, science is an evolutionary process. It wasnt all that long ago that people thought the moon was cheese, that man dreamed of flying, the earth was not only flat but itwasthe center of the universe. Be patient, young padawan. Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man, but he is human, and falls into the pratfalls of his profession, saying what people want to hear. Asfar as the the universe being infinite.....well, i forget the name of the man who wrote it, but he effectively said our universe is about as unique as spots on a leopard, and there are more out there. Do you think the beginning of everything was with the big bang? what was there before? Interesting questions.. .do you see why scientists are neurotic?

Answer 2

In science there is a huge difference between facts and theories. A fact is something observable - for example, we know that the surface temperature of the Sun is about 5800 Kelvin. A theory, on the other hand, is something that explains the facts - for example, that there is nuclear fusion occurring inside the Sun, and the energy from this fusion reaches the Sun's "surface" in a particular way such that the temperature is 5800 Kelvin. A scientific theory can never be proven true, it can only be proven false. However, it can be verified by many people, and theories only become generally accepted after they have been rigorously tested.

I find it odd that Stephen Hawking would ever say that science would soon explain everything. Explaining everything is the ultimate goal of science, but there is so much we don't understand that it certainly won't reach that goal "soon"! I'd love to see the actual quote, in context.

Every scientist I know, and every scientist I have ever talked with (and that's a lot of people, as I am a science professor) will unhesitatingly tell you that we don't know everything, and that it's very possible that someone will discover something tomorrow that will disprove some theory that everyone "knew" was correct.

I think the problem comes from the way science teachers teach science. They teach it as if science is just a string of facts, as if scientists *do* understand everything. Then when people learn that science doesn't have all the answers, some people decide science has *no* answers and turn to silly things like astrology for answers.

Is the universe infinite? Well, there is no edge to the universe, but it does have a finite size. How does that work? Good question!

Answer 3

Are you trying to sell us the idea that you had a question?

The universe IS infinite. The latest observations by WMAP have excluded the possibilities that the universe could be small (meaning "just a few hundred billion light years") and can be best explained by invoking a spatially infinite universe.

The space-time continuum is not infinite (the time part has some kind of beginning about 14 billion years ago, so that we cannot see beyond 14 billion light-years, even though the universe is much larger -- light has not had time to get ot us for further away).

Scientists are even more arrogant than that: they present facts as facts and theories as theories.

Unfortunately for the unwashed, a 'theory' in science has a very precise meaning, while the word theory in common practice usually describes an uncertain explanation. SO, when scientists are presenting a "theory", it is usually a very well tested set of hypotheses, equations and rules on their use.

Stephen Hawkins has never appeared to me to be an idiot (there is a definition of 'idiot' in a dictionary, and it does not appear to apply to him). However, he has been wrong on a few occasions (even though he is far more often right than wrong); he has recently lost a very public bet on a question of physics (on whether or not information that has passed a black hole's event horizon could ever be retrieved -- he had said no and some other scientist showed how the information could be retrieved under some special conditions).

Answer 4

I don't disagree with your points. The Big Bang theory has evolved and changed since it's inception in the 1930's. It still has more questions than answers and it is still open for revision as we continue to learn. The original concept held that matter exploded from a single point into an infinite Universe. Today the idea is that the Big Bang created space and is still expanding. While the universe is believed to be flat, it remains undecided whether or not it is infinite. It is a commonly asked question.

Depending upon your point of view, the Universe can be considered as having finite or infinite size.

There are some ways to estimate the possible size. For example, if it is expanding at the speed of light (c), then its radius (R) = ct, where t is the age of the Universe. This age is based on t=1/H where H is the Hubble constant. If the Universe is expanding faster than the speed of light, it will be larger than the above estimate, but in this case, we are unable to observe it with our present telescopes.

The Universe can also be considered as infinite in size, even though constantly increasing. Infinity is not a constant and it cannot be defined mathematically. “Infinite” can be thought of as a number without a precise value with the property that for any number that you can think of, no matter how big, infinite is always much larger. Infinite is also sometimes defined as 'a very large number' but not 'all-inclusive'. So there are problems with semantics.

Our observations of the expansion of the Universe can be considered as local measurements. Astronomers have found that all detectable galaxies seem to be getting further apart from each other. We have not seen the edge of the Universe and we have noticed it getting further away as time goes by.

Stephen Hawkins is a scientist. Scientists are men/women- not idols to worship nor blindly accept all that they say as undeniable truth.

Here is more on the ongoing finite/infinine universe debate

http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=ApSjZ5IrnVhuqDGac5saYzPpy6IX;_ylv=3?p=is+the+universe+infinite

Answer 5

they won't be able to say no rely if or no longer it somewhat is infinite through fact it ought to have come from someplace and that they do no longer comprehend the place. a clean prepare of theory is that the Universe is increasing till this form of time (unimaginably long term away) the universe has decayed and unfold so a ways wherein it is going to become organic capability as quickly as returned. At this ingredient, the assumption is that on the grounds that area itself is created from capability, and if each thing turns to capability, the full universe is in basic terms a ball of capability, and if capability is only capability, it has no scale or measurement, and hence can large-bang yet returned. that would desire to be problematic to hold close, besides the undeniable fact that it is going like this: Time and area in basic terms exist through fact capability converted and made time and area. If each thing is going back to capability, time and area do no longer exist, and so what replaced right into a 1x10^80 years previous and large ball of rely, now has no scale or length, and so, would besides be tiny, through fact it somewhat is a singularity returned. below the large-bang theory, the universe isn't infinite in terms of capability and rely, yet could be infinite in terms of time. the ingredient is, previous the nation-states of this universe, we've not, and in no way would have any concept what number, if any Universes there have been or would be.

Answer 6

Infinity is a mathematical concept.
It's easy to postulate an infinite universe with the language of mathematics.
In reality anything that has a beginning must have an end.
The universe began some time in the past,it is a finite entity that will run it's course and eventually go out existence.

Answer 7

Theories are revised and modified as new information and data are studied and confirmed.
The universe may still be infinite, but scientists now understand that the "observable" universe (that part of the universe where there has been enough time for light to reach us) is about 46.5 billion light years in diameter.

No evidence exists to suggest that the boundary of the observable universe corresponds to the physical boundary of the universe (if such a boundary exists). It is likely that the galaxies within our visible universe represent only a minuscule fraction of the galaxies in the universe.

Answer 8

I'm confused about what your question is.
It resembles an idiotic opinion to be quite honest.

Maybe Hawkin's statement wasn't supposed to be scientific. Just because someone studies science doesn't mean every word or statement they say needs to be fact.

Answer 9

I'm sure one of the greatest minds in cosmology is offended by some numpty on the internet calling him an idiot. I dare say he was referring to the "Theory of Everything" in which relativity and quantum mechanics are unified into one grand theory describing the nature of reality. But then you knew that already, right?

Answer 10

well, there are was this group of observers, just not sure where i read it though, but what they thought was a black hole, they did not see the characteristics describing it as a black hole, since on the other side, there isnt any stars or planets or heavenly bodies.. i will try to find that source again.. =]