is space infinate?

[beddo]

i blows your mind to think of space being infinate but is it really ifinate?

Well, the observable universe does not appear to be infinite though it is expanding at an accelerating rate. Then again we do not know for sure, imagine youcan only move left and right along 1 dimension. That line could be folded into a circle, a two-dimensional object. However, if you are observing from the point of view of the line you would have no idea.

More aptly is an example of the world, to you, me and everyone, it's essentially flat, you could not tell just by looking that it in-fact curved. Here, you are almost observing 3-dimension from 2-dimensions. Now imagine applying that to 3-dimensions, but actually 4-dimensions as everything changes with time.

We can hypothesize that it is not infinite as we've been able to trace back to what we believe to be the start of the universe; the big bang. From what I understand the universe is likely to be in the shape of an ellipsoid rather than a sphere. We don't truly know if it has a boundary but we believe that at any one time the edge of the universe is a set distance from us (not infinite).

 

[0p3rati0n]

I has to be infinite because then it's a paradox. If I hit a golf ball out in space it will keep going. Now say no planet, star, or meteor hits that golf ball and it reaches the end of the universe. Well what's beyond that? More space and more and more and more. So it has to be infinite or side 8.

 

[beddo]

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

If it's infinite then how is it getting bigger?

 

[UnravThreads]

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

If it's infinite then how is it getting bigger?

Infinite doesn't mean it's restricted to a certain figure.

What's infinity + 1?

 

[muffincakes]

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.

I find it interesting that people can claim there are things the human mind cannot understand, such as with space, but somehow cannot see how that argument could apply to a God, Gods, or higher power.

OT space may or may not be infinite. Until we have the means to find out, I won't worry about it since it will have no effect on me or my life.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

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

If it's infinite then how is it getting bigger?

Infinite doesn't mean it's restricted to a certain figure.

What's infinity + 1?

Still infinity.

 

[beddo]

I wish I was immortal and didn't need oxygen and invincible so I could just slowly traverse space looking to see if there was an end. Maybe meet some aliens and befriend them securing the safety of humanity when they invade.

You'd have to traverse it at the speed of light to ever 'see' the edge/end. Otherwise the end would just keep getting further away from you.

 

[Archemetis]

The universe is supposedly Pringle-shaped.

How can something with a shape be inifinite?

Unless it was constantly expanding...

Which I guess answers mine and your question.

It's not infinite, it's just getting bigger all the time.

so the area that its expanding in to doesnt count as part of the universe, that area at least must be infinite as it can contain a constantly expanding body without expanding itself.

Certainly a way to "think outside the universe".

 

[grimsprice]

Good question. A current theory is that space expands (which I think by definition means space is not infinite yet). However because time is relative it seems to contradict (how do we know that the expansion we see doesn't go at an infinately slow rate?)

@Zarthek: it's all about the definition of a "point", the kind of point you're talking about doesn't have physical dimensions (it just nears a certain dimensions to infinity). When talking about expanding space we're talking about measurable components, like atoms.

welcome to the escapist. Here are some FYI's...

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3: Don't make a thread for a while, until you get used to the community.
4: this will help you a lot. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/markup_help.php

And of course, OT: space, is expanding and infinite.

 

[beddo]

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

If it's infinite then how is it getting bigger?

Infinite doesn't mean it's restricted to a certain figure.

What's infinity + 1?

You can't have infinity + 1. Infinity is not a number in that sense, it has its own set of rules that are different to the regular numbers we deal with.

There are different sizes of infinity but you cannot manipulate any of them using normal mathematical operations.

 

[KnowYourOnion]

Best way to even vaguely describe what the universe might doing is to imagine that all the galaxies are dots on an inflating balloon so even though the total amount of space remains the same the dots move further apart from each other.
Which is pretty amazing when you think about

 

[brighteye]

There are 2 things that are infinite, humanitys ability to be stupid and space.
...and i am not so sure about space.

 

[obex]

No but it is expanding at a rate that is assumed to be infinite as it does not seem to be stopping in its expansion

 

[axia777]

Here is are some questions. If the whole of outer space ends, what does it end in? How does it end? How can it end?

 

[jamesworkshop]

space is infinite
space is the gap between objects the universes expansion or Inflation is an expansion of Space not an expansion into space

 

[caz105]

Current scientific theory is the space is infinite and expanding.
This is not a contradiction.

Take the number-line. That is infinite in every direction.
Now stretch the distance between each number to twice it's current length.
You have now expanded that number line despite the fact it is infinite.
The universe is expanding in exactly the same way.

The universe started out at a single point. In order for it to be infinitely big then it has had to be expanding for an infinite amount of time

That's not true.

If you took the natural number line and compressed every distance between each number to zero, then the number line would be a single point, but if the distance between each number was even slightly greater than zero, then the number line would be infinite again.

Huh? The number line is infinite even without gaps between natural numbers.

 

[Burst6]

I think it depends on your definition of "universe".

My definition is that the universe is everything, so it's infinite. By that definition it is impossible to be anything but infinite.

 

[p3t3r]

ya there is an end to my understand it but space just keeps getting bigger

 

[Flap Jack452]

Oh yeah, take a look at this: http://buytaert.net/we-are-small-and-insignificant

Be warned, your mind will probably implode. It's quite astonishing.

If the picture is over 16 billion light years away (or 800 million as it says in the end), then how were we able to get the picture in four months?

 

[Julianking93]

I don't know. Common logic would lead me to believe that nothing is infinite and it has to end somewhere, but where?

What's at the edge? Is it just blackness? Would it just be like a wall that you can't pass through? Would I become a Reaver like in Firefly if I went to the edge?