if were inside of space what is space inside of?

Answer 1

Space is not inside of anything. If there were anything on the outside of space then that would be part of space. There may be an endless limit to how big our universe is, but until some particle of light has reached out beyond the farthest reaches of our universe, that space is only virtual and doesn't really exist. Or maybe its a giant balloon. That works too.

Answer 2

Space is our perception of 3 dimensions. Height, Width and Depth. Space can contain anything in a three dimensional form.

Of course, time is an example of a 4th dimension which we move through against our control.

I am wondering if by space you meant "vacuum"?

Answer 3

According to current scientific theory/interpretation/thought/conjecture/speculation, the universe is not inside anything. It does not have an inside or an outside.

According to current religious theory/interpretation/thought/conjecture/speculation, the universe is inside a god.

Answer 4

Hi. Distance.

Answer 5

i guess its all in how you ask the question...

"If the Universe is everything that is, what's the rest of it called?"

"What is North of the North Pole?"

"If it takes me four hours to sober up, where will I be in eight hours?"

Answer 6

This is a GREAT question! I would like to introduce you to Superstring Theory, a theoretical (pure) branch of physics that by most accounts predicts that there are up to 11 dimensions surrounding and enveloping us! Some String Theorists predict more, but the most elegant formulae presented by Ed Witten (Wikipedia him, he's fascinating) predict 11.

We live, and are aware of, 4 dimensions. 1) Forward-Backward. 2) Left-Right. 3) Up-Down. and 4) Time for the prevous three dimensions to exist. So we live in a world with an x, y, and z axis ... and time.

Imagine if you will, a world, a dimension, existing in the plane of the floor of your living room. This is simplified beyond compare, but bare with me. Theorists don't flame me, I am just trying to make this explainable to non-Theoretical Physicists.

So you're sitting on your couch with your feet up resting with you. Down in the floor of your living room you notice two creatures talking with each other. They don't see you, because they don't know what Up-Down means. They live in an x, y axis coordinate system plus time. i.e. 3 total dimensions of space and time. They know forward-back, and left-right, and time ... but they DON'T know Up-Down! Thus, they don't see you.

You can reach down, and come infinitely close to them from YOUR 4 dimensional couch and living room, but unless you breach the plane of their floor, they DO NOT SEE YOU.

Now, pick one of these little fellas up and bring him/her/it up on the couch with you. WOW! The little creature for the first time sees what up-down is! He sees his friend from a dimension he's never been in, up-down! But to his friend, the little creature you picked out of the plane of the floor suddenly disappeared into nowhere! Afterall, the friend stuck in the plane of the floor can't look up and down.

Now you set the little creature you picked up back into the plane of the floor, his world if you will, and to his buddy he suddenly re-appears out of nowhere! WOW! "Where were you, buddy," he asks? The friend you picked up, however, is again restricted to the laws of his floor plane world, and can't point up or down, and can only say, "Well, I could see you but you couldn't see me! Did you slip me a magik mushroom?"

Where am I going with this? Well, I am trying to explain that our existence in x, y, z, and time are perhaps only 4 of 11 (or more) dimensions, predicted by Superstring Theory ... the theory of everything. We may be on a membrane shaped universe, but existing in a bubble not unlike a droplet on a shower curtain. There may be other nearby curtains/membranes, parallel universes, new dimensions, all existing infinitely close to us at this very second. Perhaps this is how God sees us, yet we (or most of us) can't SEE Him? Maybe He is infinitely close to us, but in a 5th dimension that we just can't see or touch, but it can touch us.

So, if we're inside of our 4 dimensional universe, our little droplet on a shower curtain, among a series of other membranous shower curtains with other droplets outside our own ... who knows?!

Great question and freaky answers. I wish I could take you through the world of Superstrings in this setting, but I can't. I can only suggest that our 4 dimensions are inside the 5th through 11th somehow, mathematically. So what's the 11th dimension inside of ... pfffft my brain just blew a flat.

Have fun with this. Read about Strings and Membranes. Watch Brian Greene's Elegant Universe on PBS!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

Visit Ed Witten's page on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Witten

Take a gander at the Official Superstring Theory website:
http://www.superstringtheory.com/

HAVE FUN with this!