This has always baffled me.

[oldman420]

Nothing,another universe?
I have wondered this since I was a kid.
Short of asking God you guys are my best bet, God does not talk to this oldman.

 

[JWMiddleton]

According to Einstine the universe folds back on itself and you never reach the edge, intead you you seems to reenter at the other side. Read his theory of relativity for more info.

Guess his theory sounds better than reaching the edge and falling off into nothing.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: JWMiddleton
According to Einstine the universe folds back on itself and you never reach the edge, intead you you seems to reenter at the other side. Read his theory of relativity for more info.

Guess his theory sounds better than reaching the edge and falling off into nothing.

Well technically the universe is "nothing", just empty space if you go far enough out. Assuming the big bang theory is correct, there should be an edge in the sense that matter hasn't expanded beyond that spot yet, but the universe would still be there...just empty.

 

[Adn4n]

According to Einstein, the universe in folded into itself. I suggest you read the book The Universe In A Nut Shell by Steven Hawking, it will amaze you I am sure. According to his theories, you could go from earth into one direction, and end up in earth again. If you did this action instantaneously, which means you'd be the same age, the others on earth, would be a lot older. It's hard to explain this in English, since I read it in German, but see for yourself.

There are also other theories that the universe consists of parallel galaxies. Think of it this way; imagine spheres that represent our galaxy. Now the other galaxy is not adjacent to it, but rather distant. There is nothing between those galaxies, not even empty space. In order to reach this other galaxy, you'd have to create a worm hole, an event horizon if you will.

 

[harrkev]

Let's use a simple analogy. What is ther at the end of the Earth? The Earth has no edge. It just folds back in upon itself. If you go one direction long enough, you wind up back where you started. The Earth can be considered to be a 2-D surface embedded in a 3-D space.

Similarly, it is believed that the universe has the same properties. Hence it has not edge. Of course, to visualize this would require imagining a 4-D surface, and you can bruise your brain if you try.

 

[everman]

I think this calls for...The Total Perspective Vortex.
use with caution. Void where prohibited.
Don't Panic!

 

[Smilin]

I have thought on this for a great number of years.
You'll find my answer in this thread:

"What is it like on the outer edge of the universe?"
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...6989&enterthread=y


Based on the length of my post I hope you realize my hesitance to repost it.



Edit: Could I suggest we redirect over to that thread? It has a bit of a head start.

 

[imported_StormGod]

String theory or superstring theory (and m-theory) also calls for space to be rolled up on itself. Actually, string theory claims that there are nine spatial dimensions which are rolled up, six that are rolled so tightly that only strings can notice they are there at all, and three that have a much larger radius. I believe that the number was on the order of 10^37 meters, or 10^22 light years which is *many* orders of magnitude farther than we can currently see. So according to string theory you can leave the earth traveling "up/down", "left/right", or "forward/backward", travel 10^37 meters and arrive right back where you started. A two-dimensional example would be the inside wall of a sphere, leave in any direction travel straight and you must arrive back where you started.

String theory distinguishes itself from special relativity in its prediction of six tightly rolled additional spatial dimensions. These dimensions have a diameter of about 10^-34 meters. This means that only strings are small enough to notice these extra dimensions and vibrate in them as well as the three that we can notice. An analogy I like to use to explain this is your desk, run your finger over the surface of your desk and it feels smooth, only two dimensional. Run an electron over the surface and its mountainous and very three dimensional. An excellent book on superstring theory is The Elegent Universe which does a much better job of explaining this than I do.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: JWMiddleton
According to Einstine the universe folds back on itself and you never reach the edge, intead you you seems to reenter at the other side. Read his theory of relativity for more info.

Guess his theory sounds better than reaching the edge and falling off into nothing.

Well technically the universe is "nothing", just empty space if you go far enough out. Assuming the big bang theory is correct, there should be an edge in the sense that matter hasn't expanded beyond that spot yet, but the universe would still be there...just empty.

Intuition sucks, because it's wrong sometimes. To really understand what everyone's been posting above, it helps to be able to think in more than 3 dimensions.

But, I've been led to believe there's a restaurant at the end of the universe.

 

[jhu]

a restaurant

 

[Sideswipe001]

Originally posted by: everman

I think this calls for...The Total Perspective Vortex.
use with caution. Void where prohibited.
Don't Panic!

Originally posted by: jhu
a restaurant

The amazing thing is that I am just reading those books for the first time.

On subject, I would tend to believe that there is no end to the universe. Infinity. It spreads out in all directions forever.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Sideswipe001

On subject, I would tend to believe that there is no end to the universe. Infinity. It spreads out in all directions forever.

"going on forever" or "without end" is not the same as infinity.

See mine and several other posts in http://forums.anandtech.com/me...6989&enterthread=y

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: JWMiddleton
According to Einstine the universe folds back on itself and you never reach the edge, intead you you seems to reenter at the other side. Read his theory of relativity for more info.

Guess his theory sounds better than reaching the edge and falling off into nothing.

Well technically the universe is "nothing", just empty space if you go far enough out. Assuming the big bang theory is correct, there should be an edge in the sense that matter hasn't expanded beyond that spot yet, but the universe would still be there...just empty.

which is where i am baffled, how can there be nothing?

 

[cirthix]

nothing is just the absence of matter

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: cirthix
nothing is just the absence of matter

In the context we are discussing that's not quite accurate. Once you start talking about "outside the universe" you need to include the absence of space (which itself my be absent of matter).

 

[thegimp03]

 

[Machine350]

Regarding the big bang, my question is where did that very first atom come from, hmmmmmm?

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Machine350
Regarding the big bang, my question is where did that very first atom come from, hmmmmmm?

Well, the very first atom did not appear until a while after the big bang - initially the universe was too "hot" for atoms to exist.

But, I assume your post refers to the point from which the big bang occurred. Well, we know that things actually *DO* pop into and out of existence all the time, in pairs of particles and anti-particles. It's one of the things that quantum mechanics suggested which was later verified experimentally. So, it's probably possible that the first point just appeared, and big banged before it could disappear.

(I wonder if big bang has ever been used as a verb before)

The whole mechanism is pretty complicated and involves energies, energy densities, "negative energies" and all sorts of complicated stuff. I don't completely understand it myself.

 

[imported_StormGod]

This proof that particles actually do pop into existence is very interesting and was conducted in the 1950's. It has just recently (last two years) in conjunction with obersvations taken with the Hubble Space Telescope led to the formulation of the *fifth* fundemental force. Last I heard, this force is being called the vacuum force. So now we have weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity, and vacuum force. Vacuum force is very similar to the science fiction notion of antigravity in that it pushes mass apart and it becomes stronger as distances between mass increases, which is exactly the opposite of how gravity behaves. What an interesting time to be alive.

 

[oldman420]

Originally posted by: cirthix
nothing is just the absence of matter

Then there would be no difference between an empty section of space and the after edge world?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: StormGod
Last I heard, this force is being called the vacuum force. So now we have weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity, and vacuum force. .

Links please!! Must learn more. :beer:

 

[JF0603]

im geussing if you get to the direct center of a blackhole you reach a white hole which will lead to a wormhole or jumphole to other galaxys or universe refer to the philidephia experiment done in the 40s

 

[JCorday]

Fascinating to see the human mind beat against the walls of self imposed constraints. To truly sass the Life, Universe and Everything we need to start with a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster, and the restaurant at the end of the universe is as good of a place for that as any

Sass you there hoopy froods~

 

[MobiusPizza]

Actually I still don't get this wormhole thing. Simplicity it is just a massive body of matter like a oversized sun in which the immense gravitational force does not let even light to escape. But I cannot imagine it as a hole where you can be 'teleported' to other places. I thought you can only end up squashed on the surface of that great pile of landfill.

 

[Smilin]

I believe wormholes were a hypothesis used to explain what happened to all the matter that disappeared into a black hole. The answer of "it's just gone" or "it just stays there" were both unsatisfying. Hawking has since explained that black holes slowly "evaporate". The spontaneously create particle-antiparticle pairs in the distortion near the event horizon. Most particle pairs annihilate each other, but some are separated with one particle falling in and the other escaping. The escaping particles slowly evaporate the black hole.