Is Space Endless? (thought-provoking)

[chuckieland]

if the space is expending in speed of light
when we can travel at speed of light, we will never caught it
when we trave faster then speed of light
then we be going back in time
so is like this
at same speed, you never rearch it
at faster speed, you are running backwards
this is some..........
hope i get to travell to the moon and mars before i die
hope the technigue is good enough for me to live forever
we can cone human body, just need tech to transfer my memory and conscience over, then i truely forever
before we know it
entire space is full of human

 

[Electric Amish]

Good answer SirFish..

From what I've read/heard, there are 2 theories.

1. Space is infinite and is either ever expanding, or will eventually cease to expand and collapse upon itself (big squeeze). In this case, I would expect that the exterior of the "bang" radius is, as SirFish suggested, nothingness.

2. (As I understand it) Space is lik a "fabric" that is finite, but in such a way that its "border" is not distinguishable because it's globular...like the inside of a sphere. Due to the warp of the "fabic" you cannot get to what can be perceived as a "boundary", you just continue to slide along the surface thinking you are going striaight when, in fact, you are tracing the interior of the sphere.

amish

 

[Recneps]

Space has to be infinate because space = (nothing and everything) and if you are to go outside of what we know to be there would still be something or nothing.

 

[SofaKingWeTaughtIt]

<< Distance and time are mearly perceptions of reality. You always were and always will be. You have never moved and never will. Get over it. >>



True, true.

The Universe is actually expanding faster than the speed of light, and is accellerating.

Do not expect to understand a universe (in any meaningful way), which operates on a fundamental level, in direct conflict with Newtonian Physics.

The Unified Field Theory is suck.

Superstring Theory is suck too.

Maybe we will understand when our atoms are as large as the universe itself is today. That will happen in about a billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion... well, you get the idea. It may take awhile.

 

[SirFshAlot]

another thing that I wonder........

maybe there is matter that is totally unique from everything we experience outside our realm

and....

maybe this matter is waiting, in some other arena, for some &quot;spark&quot; to set off an instantaneous, enourmous chain reaction of matter bending/changing formations

 

[slipperyslope]

SirFshAlot,

It is impossible to have any space without matter because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Empty space does not really permenently exist because an electron can appear anywhere at any moment. That is also why black holes do not exist for all time even though &quot;nothing can escape them&quot;. Electrons pretty much can do whatever they want.

Jim

 

[SirFshAlot]

Empty space does not really permenently exist because an electron can appear anywhere at any moment

Maybe we can verify this in &quot;our world&quot;.
But how can Heisenberg be so certain about his uncertainty outside the parameters of the universe?

 

[slipperyslope]

Well SirFshAlot, we can't and probably never will. As far as I am concerned there is nothing outside of our universe.

Jim

 

[Electric Amish]

<< As far as I am concerned there is nothing outside of our universe. >>



Isn't that what he said???

amish

 

[hungrypete]

<< Well SirFshAlot, we can't and probably never will. As far as I am concerned there is nothing outside of our universe.

Jim >>



so you are saying that since space is empty, and *is* nothing, that means its not there?

I think that beyond the matter which is expanding, lies infinite nothing. The matter would logically be in a sphere, but the nothing really couldnt have a border of any kind, otherwise it would be *something*.....

 

[SirFshAlot]

but the nothing really couldnt have a border of any kind, otherwise it would be *something*.....

I wouldn't envision it as a border, but as an encroachment zone where our space is invading the nothingness.

 

[hungrypete]

<< our space >>



clarify that?

 

[SirFshAlot]

our space = the universe that we think we understand, IMO

who knows what other spacetime realms/dimensions exist?

 

[Swag1138]

1. Space is infinite and is either ever expanding, or will eventually cease to expand and collapse upon itself (big squeeze).

I like to call it the Gnab Gib (thanks D.A.)


And Space, for all intents and purposes, is endless, and for all intents and purposes, infinite. We will never be able to measure it, we will never find proof that there is a limit, sure, its annoying not to be able to know something that we want to know, but tough.

Now go read The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy and realize how silly all our human questions are

 

[hungrypete]

see when I think of universe, I think of the matter that's expanding. When I think of space, I think of the empty space.
So is space endless? To me, space (nothing) is infinite. I just can't fathom how space could have any border.

Now dimensions and spacetime.... now we're getting philisophical. I don't think the human brain could begin to comprehend 'reality', let alone things beyond our limited physical scientific processes.

And about time travel, I don't think it's possible. I mean, yes, everything is *possible*, but I don't see how 'time' could be a force that could be manipulated in any way. It's a static river that cannot be controlled.

** very opinionated, slightly passionate **

 

[ggavinmoss]

It has an edge, but one that is ever-expanding. I think... or maybe I'm just talkin' out the ol' ass.

-geoff

 

[holden j caufield]

wow this is one ambiguous subject. Like someone said if something is expanding then at some moment (every moment) it has reached it's &quot;supposed&quot; limit. After this &quot;moment&quot; but in that past precise moment it had reached a finite position?

 

[GasX]

Reminds me of Office Space

Everyday you see me is my worst day...


Everyday the universe has expanded to its limit

 

[samarth]

<< what if our entire universe is simply a spec of dust on the desk of some mega giant people in a larger universe? >>



what if you expand this idea itself to infinity such that our entire universe is simply a spec of dust on the desk of some mega giant people in a larger universe and that giants universe is simply a spec of dust on the desk of some mega giant people in a larger universe and so on.

Personally. i think space and the universe are infinite.

 

[bigredguy]

imagiine if you travel faster then the speed of light. if you went far enough fast enough you could use a telescope to look back at the earth and see dinosaurs. i know as far as we know travel at such speed is totally impossible but i like the concept.

 

[LordUnum]

<< imagiine if you travel faster then the speed of light. if you went far enough fast enough you could use a telescope to look back at the earth and see dinosaurs. i know as far as we know travel at such speed is totally impossible but i like the concept. >>


It would seem. Keep in mind that when you look up at celestial bodies at night (stars, planets, points of light, etc.), you are looking at the past. If you could reach a speed much faster than that of light in space, then have an opportunity to have a direct line-of-sight back at Earth from a great distance (which'd be tough as light can &quot;bend,&quot; and be otherwise distorted, or &quot;changed&quot, you should be able to &quot;see&quot; the Earth as it was in the past (although time will pass as usual on Earth). That is, if what applies on Earth also continually applies in distant space.

According to principles we are all familiar with on Earth, as we attain the ability to travel faster, and faster, we will gradually be able to slow down the perception of time. Theoretically, we should never be able to stop time in any conceivable increment (if we happen to travel in a circle, maybe....), less be able to travel forward, or back in time.

Back To The Future was a physics-phony, and current foreseeable (maybe permanent) impossibility as it relates to us on Earth at this point, and time (have to be exact).

All this existentialism, and &quot;what is&quot; talk has me feeling light-headed.... a little high, too. Weird.

 

[SirFshAlot]

According to the popular concensus of physicists now, doesn't time stop at the speed of light?

 

[Darkluck]

I dunno if space is endless but I'd like to think so. Believing that space ends somehow seems like a way of saying &quot;everything isn't possible&quot;, which goes against what I believe in. Thats how I feel about it philosophically.
Based on my meager knowledge as a student of science, I would have to say that space is currently finite. However the finite number is so large that humans don't have a number that could come close to describing it, which is why a lot of people say it is infinite.
What is the distance from Earth to the moon? A Few Hundred Thousand Miles
What is the distance from the Earth to the Sun? A Few Million Miles, Also Known as 1AU (Astronomical Unit, basically a few million miles = 1AU)
What is the distance from the Sun to the center of our Galaxy? Several Trillion Miles, Several Million AUs
What is the distance from our Galaxy to another Galaxy? Almost Infintesimal by human standards.
The point I'm trying to make is, does anyone know what a million miles looks like? a billion miles? several trillion miles? The idea is that these numbers are so huge that they are practically infintesimal to the human consciouness. We know they exist because we created them, but we don't know what they really are.
In high school, we made a SCALED(for those of you that have done modeling you know what this means, for those that don't I'm going to over simplify...It would be like making a Bicycle EXACTLY the same, including functional working parts at 1/100th the size or approx a half an inch long) model of the solar system that was based on a scale that the sun was the size of a basketball. Which means Earth was about 100 yards away and the size of the head of a pin. Pluto was 10 miles away and less than the size of a grain of sand. And the closest star wouldn't even be inside our solar system. Stop and think about this one...imagine all the empty nothingness that is space that spans between Earth and Pluto, Imagine that Earth is the size of a pin and Pluto is a grain of sand 10 miles away from you. Could you even see pluto with your own eyes? Now apply this knowledge to the galaxy, the known universe, etc. The idea that space is infinite is rather attractive at this point just based on the principal that one can only count so high before you can't understand what you're thinking about anymore.
I hope I made my point and if I didn't I hope that you have been successfully confused

 

[Electric Amish]

Yeah, SirFish, Time passage (relative to the traveller) approaches zero as the traveller approaches the speed of light is the current theory.

amish

 

[HYD]

How did this world even come about? Or all worlds actually. There must be some upper being that created everything. Nothing can just come out of no where. All jokes aside, how did this entire planet's come about? Isn't that something to ponder about? That's what makes me believe in there is another upper being (Jesus) perhaps. I'm not saying you have to believe in what I believe, but how the in world did this world come about? That's an interesting though for the day.

Also like the show sliders, how many of you guys think that there are other time slots or something where we are existing today but in another zone or I'm not sure what they call it.

Just curious!