Universal Expansion...stupid question.

[Beev]

Why couldn't this thread have just been fun?

 

[Sunny129]

i think we're past all the hostility at this point...hopefully we can keep it civil from here on out.

 

[slayer202]

i'm simply making a point. you labeled someone else's conjecture that "we aren't at the center of the universe" as useless, when in fact its no more useful to suggest that we ARE at the center. granted, i know the idea isn't originally his, and that many scientists subscribed to this concept long before we ever decided to contemplate it. don't over-analyze it - its just food for thought.

i'm also as unsure about your explanation as you are mine. never did i say that one of your hypothetical dots IS the center. i simply said that IF there is a center, then there can only be ONE center, and it is a single point. also, the dots you described all lie within your hypothetical universe. the center of the universe, if there is one, does not necessarily have to lie within the universe itself - in fact there's a good chance that it doesn't...if it exists in the first place.

when I said "we aren't at the center of the universe" is useless, I didn't mean to suggest we ARE, I didn't mean to even hint at it, so that may be the point of confusion. both statements would be stupid. and obviously if there is a center, there is only one center. :hmm:

 

[Sunny129]

sorry for the confusion then...i thought you implying something, when in fact you weren't.

 

[sao123]

would not simple math/physics dictate that there be a center, even if it is impossible to find or calculate?

Given that the universe started as a singularity and expanded (evenly in all directions? Newtons 2nd law?) the center should be at or near the position where the singularity was.
obviously space didnt exist before the singularity, but there is a way to estimate where that could be.

If you take all the lines of flux which cross the boundary of the universe in a perpendicular manner, the point(s) where the denstity of crossing flux lines is at a maximum, should approximate the center.

theoretical math with no real life application, but it must exist.

 

[Nik]

would not simple math/physics dictate that there be a center, even if it is impossible to find or calculate?

Given that the universe started as a singularity and expanded (evenly in all directions? Newtons 2nd law?) the center should be at or near the position where the singularity was.
obviously space didnt exist before the singularity, but there is a way to estimate where that could be.

If you take all the lines of flux which cross the boundary of the universe in a perpendicular manner, the point(s) where the denstity of crossing flux lines is at a maximum, should approximate the center.

theoretical math with no real life application, but it must exist.

You don't know what you're talking about! You don't know what you're talking about!






You're right.

 

[Beev]

If the universe isn't symmetrical it would be a lot hard to pinpoint a literal "center" .

 

[sao123]

If the universe isn't symmetrical it would be a lot hard to pinpoint a literal "center" .

given that the mass/space/time distribution of the universe is homogenious, that is unlikely.

 

[Beev]

given that the mass distribution of the universe is homogenious, that is unlikely.

Maybe it is in this universe :awe:, but given that infinite universes may exist there are lots that wouldn't be symmetrical. Different universes would have different elements, different laws of physics, etc.

Man I love this thread. I don't feel like I can state that enough . So many possibilities out there...

 

[silverpig]

My 4th year cosmology prof (who writes on the CMB for the particle data book) had this to say:

"At the time of the big bang, the universe was infinite, it's just that the distance between all points in space was zero."