My question is this:
Considering all we do/don’t know about the universe, can anyone answer that with certainty?
Tim Tebow counted to infinity, twice
Once you have a Wife, Mortgage and and a lifetime of uncertain fate to deal with, these question seem petty and meaningless.
::wonders how icc affords housing and internetz::
Men make plans then God laughs!
The answer is: Yes
I thought this was about the new Beyonce song.
Mmmmmmm…Beyonce
God only knows
God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable
To the mortal man
We’re working our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away.
Geez that’s depressing. Thanks Paul!
I frequent a forum where we talk astronomy. All the members there know their shit, and I am one of those guys that has no idea what I’m talking about, so I ask all kinds of bizarre questions. This is an exact post of mine on the forum titled “what is the ‘edge’ of the universe?”:
[i]allright… this is another one of my crazy out-of-the-box questions that I know yall love so much lol!
Now, I know that no one has any idea about what is or isn’t true about this particular topic, but I would like to hear some ideas about what you think, or if you may have read any scientists giving their theories on this…
If the universe is expanding, than it must have an outside ‘edge’ around the circumference of it. I want to know what would happen if you were in a spaceship approaching this outside edge of the universe. Just for arguements sake, let’s say the speed of your ship is faster than the expansion rate of the universe is. What would happen as you went through this edge. Would it be impossible to do? As you approached the outside edge, would your ship slow in speed as the forces of universal gravity took over and pulled you back in, no matter how fast the rate of speed you were going? Or is everything non-existent past this edge, and you would simply crash into a brick wall so-to-speak? Ever thought about this before? Has it been explored by scientists? I’m sure it has…
I also want to know… if the universe is expanding, what is the context and substance on the outside of the universal edge that gives it room to expand? Let’s say that I blow up a balloon that represents the universe expanding, and the outside expanding lining of the balloon represents the universal edge. Now if I blow up a balloon, the balloon is allowed to expand due to the openness around it, but if I blew up a balloon that was inside of a shoebox, it would pop because there is lack of room for it to expand.
With either scenario, there has to be room outside of the edge for expansion, and this has to be the same with our universe expanding. There is area that exists outside of the universe’s edge!! Do we determine that outside of the universe’s exterior, there is a vast infinite amount of dark emptiness where no matter or anything exists? The only way for anything to exist in this dimension, is if it is safely stored inside this universal shell? Is this area outside of the universe just dark and empty, while at the same time infinitely massive?
^^^either way, all of this proves is that there is an ‘edge’ to the universe, and that there is something that exists outside of this universe that is probably more massive and infinite than we mortals could possibly fathom. But let’s group together and see if we can figure it out anyway here on the forum!
I have made a chart representing the expanding universe. The gray area, represents the area outside of the universe. As the universe expands it begins to take more room from the gray area. [/i]
[i]^^^the red arrows represent the gray area that is eventually swallowed up by the expanding universe.
WHAT IS THIS GRAY AREA!!!??? -and because it isn’t in our dimension known as our universe, do we deem this area non-existent?? even though it surely exists?
thoughts on this subject?[/i]
I was ultimately told that “The big bang and the subsequent expansion of the universe wasn’t an explosion in space, but an explosion of space.”
^^^basically telling me that the gray area is non-existent…but how can that be???
btw, these guys come off as complete know-it-alls, when in truth, they really don’t have all the answers like they want to appear to have. I’m even questioning Einstein’s theory of spacetime, which in due time, I will make another post once i’ve thoroughly thought it all out. I can’t wait for the responses, these guys aren’t big on questioning theories that are now presented as fact. I’m with you though iCC, I like these subjects. I mean, it is everything and anything that we are talking about here. Too deep a subject for many people, but still a subject that is brilliant to discuss.
Don’t buy this for a second. Even lifelong astronomers don’t know shit about the universe. My favorite all these theories about “dark matter” which may or may not be the cause of the continual expansion of the universe. They have this theory despite not having a clue what “dark matter” is, how it works, what it’s composed of, where it comes from or even anything remotely substantial. It’s almost collectively accepted as a good theory yet no one knows what it is.
Heck, maybe WE are the anamoly in the universe and it’s everything else that’s normal.
In the end, we don’t know shit and we likely won’t come close to it for quite a while. And who needs to know everything anyway…I liked life better when I thought that magic turned the lights on and off.
Stevo
i can’t wrap my head around the nature of the reality of space/time, but it sure is beautiful to behold.
thanks ICC, I look forward to hearing your thoughts about that post.
here is the link to the whole thread if you want to read some of the know-it-alls responses.
http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/forums/t/34102.aspx?PageIndex=1
I think I ended up pissing some of them off with my questioning of some of the theories lol.
I was told to read ‘the big bang’ by Simon Singh, which I do intend to do next time I stop by Barnes and Nobles to pick up a copy.
I agree completely with everything you said! Most of these guys on the forum are old and have studied the solar system for long time. I kind of have a jackass joking around persona by nature, but these guys don’t like jokes or making lighthearted responses or whatnot. If you question anything, they tend to strangely take offense to it for whatever reason. I can’t stand theories that people take as the gospel and fact, when they are just what they are called…THEORIES. They haven’t been proven and could very well be wrong. Concerning subjects like astronomy, evolution, religion etc…there are a lot of theories that just don’t add up in my noggin’, but hey, I’m just some non-expert beach bum stoner…who am I to question world-renowned physicists and scholars?