Is the universe infinite?

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Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
How can you say "this" when you apparently have no clue what "this" means. What do you mean by "reach it?" Reach what?? Unbounded means that there isn't an edge. It's finite, but there's no edge.

If it's finite, how can there be no reachable end?
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
the edge of the universe is moving at X speed
you are moving at Y speed

X > Y

therefore you will not reach the end

But that is assuming I can't travel faster than the expansion, if there is any expansion.
 

Cerpin Taxt

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
11,940
542
126
The universe is certainly not known to be finite. Many popular and contemporary cosmological models suggest that the set of world lines that appear to originate at the Big Bang merely exist in one local patch of space time, which itself exists among an infinite collection of similar patches.

See here for additional reading.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,012
10,506
126
I think our notion of what the universe is will be severely shaken in the future. I'm betting there's A LOT more to things than we know.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
I think our notion of what the universe is will be severely shaken in the future. I'm betting there's A LOT more to things than we know.

I think that anyone who thinks they understand this kind of thing really has no clue.
 

Udgnim

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2008
3,681
124
106
from my understanding, it is expanding faster than we can observe

so from our perspective, it is infinite
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,012
10,506
126
I think that anyone who thinks they understand this kind of thing really has no clue.

We're like an ant on the sidewalk trying to figure out what the world's about. He might have a solid understanding within a 100m sphere, but his mind would be blown if he knew what was really out there.
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
14,359
4,640
136
I think that anyone who thinks they understand this kind of thing really has no clue.

I think that every theoretical physicist has a recurring nightmare that someone finally finds the grand unifying theory that explains away quantum mechanics, and it turns out to be relatively simple, leaving no room for FTL travel, teleportation, or free energy.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,012
10,506
126
We merely exist on the Electron of some Giants Atom!

That thought's crossed my mind, kind of anyway. It seems like everything orbits something else, from very small, to very large. It wouldn't surprise me if our universe was circling something even bigger.
 

guyver01

Lifer
Sep 25, 2000
22,135
5
61
It wouldn't surprise me if our universe was circling something even bigger.

The universe exists as part of the body of a being who we cannot even begin to comprehend.

eternity_super.jpg