is space infinate?

[Valiance]

Possibilities:

Space slows/stops its expanding and compresses to crunch up for another Big Bang, a rebirth of the universe as we know it, of some sorts over time, say, countless billions of years.

Space continues to increase the speed of its expansion until all groups of celestial bodies drift apart from one another, leaving us and our galaxy far, far away from other galaxies, and our solar system possibly farther away than other solar systems, or perhaps just closer to the black hole at the center of our galaxy, again, over time, say, countless billions of years.

Theory 1: When space compresses, we all die.

Theory 2: We have even less time/space for entropy to separate/kill us from exhausting everything on every planet in every system from our and nearby galaxies, and we die.

Theory 3: We never develop faster-than-light travel, we all die.

 

[Zacharine]

You're going to want to look it up if you want a real answer. Best I can so is this:

If you go in a staright line, you'll eventually get back to where you started.

It really depends on the amount of mass in the universe. If there is a lot of it space will curve positivly(so what you said) If Mater is to rare, space will curve negatively,becomeing infinate
. with just the right amount space will not curve and will colapse into itself(a.k.a the big crunch).

Too many assumptions there. First of all, we know matter bends space-time. If space-time by nature in zero-mass/zero-energy situations is flat or somehowcurved is unknown. But if it is curved, why would it be curved?

On the other hand, if we were to find matter with negative mass (not anti-matter, but matter with negative mass) it would, presumably, curve space the other way around.

Howver, just as a circle is not infinite, a curved space is not infinite by simply being curved. It would still have a finite 'surface area' or 'volume' so to speak.

None of this determines possible Big Crunch some time in the future, but rather the expansion rate of space versus gravity. The currently most likely model of the end of universe is the so-called heat-death, where all energy that can be used has been used and what little particles of matter remain are spread evenly across so large expanses of empty space that the likelyhood of two particles meeting at any given non-infinite time-period at any part of the universe is so close to zero as to make no difference. This is so far into the future that the basic particles that make up proton, neutrons and electrons would have decayed away and black holes would have radiated themselves empty via Hawkings Radiation. We are talking of dozens of trillions of years.

 

[Zacharine]

I've always wondered that. I figure our "space" and all that, like our universe, if it was created in the big bang, then what would stop other places to do the same thing, just it's so big that we can't see it. I'm not talking about multiple universes, but think of it like this:

The problem is that according to our current understanding space and time were born in the big bang. So there would literally be nowhere for those 'other' big bangs to happen in, unless it is in an entirely different universe.

We have planets, that are part of solar systems.
We have Solar Systems that are part of galaxies.
We have galaxies, that are part of...

Galactic chains and clusters.

They've found like hundreds or thousands of galaxies, right?

Actually current estimates are around 100 billion galaxies within the part of the universe that is observable to us. The problem is, by pointing a telescope that is in space, like Hubble, to a seemingly 'empty' part of the night sky and giving long enough exposure time...say 12 days... you end up with this:

Spoiler

Hint, most of those things in the picture are galaxies, not stars.

I'm sure that if we could see big enough, we'd find out that all the galaxies are grouped together in a similar fashion of stars in galaxies.

Actually no, they form more of chains and lines, at least according to what we have previously seen; Not disk-like configurations rotating around a central source of gravitational force.

I believe that even if we found out that our entire universe was in a huge marble, that there would still be something outside of that marble, because I don't believe in 'Not there.'

That might be possible, but there is a difficulty: For there to be something 'outside', it would require there to be space outside of the 'marble'. And as I have said, as far as we know, all of space that is known was compressed to a tiny, tiny volume at big bang. Universe literally was was smaller than a tea-cup and space itself was confined within it: there was nowhere else, because no space existed outside of big bang. Asking what is outside of it or what was before big bang is like asking 'what is the difference between an orange' - a nonsensical question that cannot be answered because it is not defined, a logical impossibility. Universe is defined as "all matter and space considered as a whole" (COED 11th ed.) and asking what is outside of it is is a logical impossibility because we have just defined that there is no 'outside'.

To answer the question we would first need to redefine the terms and meanings used.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Ifinate?
Nope, not really.
Infinite?
Well, they say it is.
Which means that there are infinite chances for Krogans invading Coruscant.

Pretty much what this guy said.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must search the infinite space until I find Turians...

Actually, this got me thinking.
So, lets just suppose that space IS infinite. (we dont really know if it is, but just suppose)
That would mean that there are infinite chances of said Krogans invading them Jedis. (since there are infinite chances for both of them existing in the same galaxy. Right now.)
But do infinite chances mean that it has to happen?

 

[Zacharine]

Ifinate?
Nope, not really.
Infinite?
Well, they say it is.
Which means that there are infinite chances for Krogans invading Coruscant.

Pretty much what this guy said.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must search the infinite space until I find Turians...

Actually, this got me thinking.
So, lets just suppose that space IS infinite. (we dont really know if it is, but just suppose)
That would mean that there are infinite chances of said Krogans invading them Jedis. (since there are infinite chances for both of them existing in the same galaxy. Right now.)
But do infinite chances mean that it has to happen?

Unfortunately it does. It's like rule #34, applied to fanfiction: "Everything shall be cross-overed".

And if it didn't exists before you brought it up, someone will read your message of it and make it happen. See internet rule #35.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Ifinate?
Nope, not really.
Infinite?
Well, they say it is.
Which means that there are infinite chances for Krogans invading Coruscant.

Pretty much what this guy said.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must search the infinite space until I find Turians...

Actually, this got me thinking.
So, lets just suppose that space IS infinite. (we dont really know if it is, but just suppose)
That would mean that there are infinite chances of said Krogans invading them Jedis. (since there are infinite chances for both of them existing in the same galaxy. Right now.)
But do infinite chances mean that it has to happen?

Unfortunately it does. It's like rule #34, applied to fanfiction: "Everything shall be cross-overed".

And if it didn't exists before you brought it up, someone will read your message of it and make it happen. See internet rule #35.

...
What?

 

[Zacharine]

Ifinate?
Nope, not really.
Infinite?
Well, they say it is.
Which means that there are infinite chances for Krogans invading Coruscant.

Pretty much what this guy said.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must search the infinite space until I find Turians...

Actually, this got me thinking.
So, lets just suppose that space IS infinite. (we dont really know if it is, but just suppose)
That would mean that there are infinite chances of said Krogans invading them Jedis. (since there are infinite chances for both of them existing in the same galaxy. Right now.)
But do infinite chances mean that it has to happen?

Unfortunately it does. It's like rule #34, applied to fanfiction: "Everything shall be cross-overed".

And if it didn't exists before you brought it up, someone will read your message of it and make it happen. See internet rule #35.

...
What?

>explanation<

It will happen somewhere. If it hasn't yet happened, it will happen. If it will not happen, someone has written of it happening. And if no one has written of it happening, someone will write about it.

We have fanfiction stories of Harry Potter buggering Lord Voldemort, of Legolas and Aragorn comforting eachother at Helm's Deep, not to mention Harry Potter buggering Aragorn on a starship. And other assorted slash-monstrosities written by 14 year old girls, among with the general insanity of the male writers of same age.

A cross-over story of Krogans invading Jedi is pretty much normalcy when internet fan-fiction is considered.

So yeah, it has either happened in reality or in stories. And if it has not happened yet, someone will write a story of it happening, inspired by your post about it.

>/explanation<

For additional informational values, see internet rules #34 and #35.

Spoiler: Rule #34. Naughty word warning.

If it exists, there is porn of it.

Spoiler: Rule #35. Naughty word warning.

Addendum to rule #34. If there is no porn of it, porn will be made of it.

 

[Fearzone]

Infinity of anything is hard to wrap your head around, but consider this: space is the lack of something; it is "space" without anything occupying it. Can nothing be infinite? Zero x infinity = zero.

If the question is: "Is the Universe Infinite" the answer then is a clear "no."

 

[Zacharine]

Infinity of anything is hard to wrap your head around, but consider this: space is the lack of something; it is "space" without anything occupying it. Can nothing be infinite? Zero x infinity = zero.

If the question is: "Is the Universe Infinite" the answer then is a clear "no."

Curiously enough, according to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, there is no such things as empty space. The closer we know the matter content of any given volume, the less accurately we know the energy content of said volume. The positions and speed of subatomic particles are not the only informational pairs the Principle applies to.

 

[Cargando]

Yes. Of course it is. It's infinite and expanding.

...then what is it expanding into?

OT: No, it's still expanding from the Big Bang.
The question is what lies beyond

Pure and utter incomprehensible nothingness. Inidentally it is infinite, as if you got an impossibly fast rocket and travelled in a dead straight line through space, you''d end up where you started. The human mind can not comprehend how it is possible, but somehow it is.

No my friend, due to energy dilution in three trillion years there won't be enough energy in any one place for the universe to continue to expand at the speed of light. The universe itself had a recorded diameter at some time; canb't recall when or what.

According to the great man himself - Stephen Hawking, there are three possible routes the universe might take.

1) It will not run out of energy and it's own gravity won't affect it and it will continue expanding outwards for ever.

2) It will reach a point where it stops expanding and remains at a constant diameter. (Sort of}.

3) And lastly, it will continue to expand until it runs out of energy, causing it to collapse in on itself, resulting in the Big Crunch and a possible new universe.

Now about the infiniteness. Practically, it is. Measurably, it isn't. It does sort of have a point where you'd reach the edge (also the beginning).

 

[Maze1125]

Maze, how do you explain the distribution of matter in a universe of infinite size? Shouldn't it be infinitely sparse? To me, it would seem like anything else would require an infinite amount of matter, and thus infinite energy, and since you appear to know your physics, I don't need to keep rambling about that, now do I?

Not necessarily.
It's quite possible that the matter would collect around the point where the original singularity was. Which would allow an infinite universe to have finite matter and positive matter density.

Also, there's no problem with the universe having infinite matter or energy, because in any given bubble of observability the total energy would still be finite.

 

[Maze1125]

Zero x infinity = zero.

That's not necessarily true.

 

[tehroc]

Space is the absence of matter. Space itself is infinite. Space would have existed before the Big Bang.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

Yes. Of course it is. It's infinite and expanding.

...then what is it expanding into?

OT: No, it's still expanding from the Big Bang.
The question is what lies beyond

Narnia obviously.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

A, Does it matter?
B, Who says it cant be another universe beyond?
C, Taking into account that there are an infinite number of parallell universes (one for each alternative for each choise any one of us do), the universe is infinite in one way or another.

 

[Fearzone]

Zero x infinity = zero.

That's not necessarily true.

Would be interesting to hear the logic in situations where it is not.

 

[Quad08]

Well the scientists say the universe is expanding, right? Could that imply space is expanding, therefore making space finite?

 

[cartzo]

no, nothing is infinite, according to most laws of physics that have been established and accepted over the years space is a 4 dimentional donut shape, in laymans terms, if you were to continue moving in the same direction for long enough you would eventually arrive in the same place you started, like in asteroids or pac-man.

 

[Maze1125]

Zero x infinity = zero.

That's not necessarily true.

Would be interesting to hear the logic in situations where it is not.

Very simple.
Take the limit(x -> 0) x/(x^2) as x tends to 0.
The algebra of limits tells us this is equal to (limit(x -> 0) x)*(limit(x -> 0) 1/(x^2)).
limit(x -> 0) x/(x^2) = infinity
(limit(x -> 0) x) = 0
(limit(x -> 0) 1/(x^2)) = infinity

So
(limit(x -> 0) x)*(limit(x -> 0) 1/(x^2)) = limit(x -> 0) x/(x^2)
Therefore, in the context of the functions x and 1/x^2 as they tend to 0,
0*infinity = infinity