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Yakk · 06-07-2005, 11:28 AM

CSFilm/d*d, while there can be a closed universe, this isn't guaranteed.

You can have a limitless, boundless universe, that expands.

Take your baloon. Now make it flat.

Flatter than that. Expand it out until it is a limitless plane.

Now, draw on that plane a grid, with the grid lines 1 cm apart.

Next, imagine the entire plane getting stretched, so the grid lines are 2 cm apart.

Notice that this plane didn't expand into anything. All of this action happened within the plane itself. Which points out flstf's error. =)

The universe isn't the contents of the balloon. It is the surface of the balloon.

The real trick is to now imagine this in 3 dimensions. Draw a scaffolding over reality. Now imagine the distance between the scaffolds getting larger, and everything moving with it.

We now have a limitless space (infinite in scope), that expanded by a factor of 2.

The 'space is expanding' claim basically comes from the cosmological observations that the further something is away from us, the faster it is moving away from us -- and, there seems to be evidence that a medium-long time ago, every bit of reality we can see was right next to each other (because it was the same tempurature). The rest, as far as I can tell, is syntatic sugar and mathimatical magic to make sense of these observations.

06-07-2005, 11:28 AM	#28 (permalink)
Yakk Wehret Den Anfängen! Location: Ontario, Canada	CSFilm/dd, while there can be a closed universe, this isn't guaranteed. You can have a limitless, boundless universe, that expands. Take your baloon. Now make it flat. Flatter than that. Expand it out until it is a limitless plane. Now, draw on that plane a grid, with the grid lines 1 cm apart. Next, imagine the entire plane getting stretched, so the grid lines are 2 cm apart. Notice that this plane didn't expand into anything. All of this action happened within the plane itself. Which points out flstf's error. =) The universe isn't the contents* of the balloon. It is the surface of the balloon. The real trick is to now imagine this in 3 dimensions. Draw a scaffolding over reality. Now imagine the distance between the scaffolds getting larger, and everything moving with it. We now have a limitless space (infinite in scope), that expanded by a factor of 2. The 'space is expanding' claim basically comes from the cosmological observations that the further something is away from us, the faster it is moving away from us -- and, there seems to be evidence that a medium-long time ago, every bit of reality we can see was right next to each other (because it was the same tempurature). The rest, as far as I can tell, is syntatic sugar and mathimatical magic to make sense of these observations. __________________ Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.