Sorry, any part of a balloon is in 3d.
What is the universe expanding into?
- Thread starter x0rcist
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Sorry, any part of a balloon is in 3d.
are you saying that a surface cannot be 2 dimensional
Well that's what I usually use as my visual aid for a universe, but you'd notice that the 2d surface of the balloon moves outward into the air as you increase the size. Now that I think about it though, that'd be incorporating a 3rd dimension.
So you have a curved 2d space expanding into a 3rd dimension.
If we have a curved 3d space (the universe) and it's expanding, must it be expanding into a 4th spacial dimension (hence proving another dimension)?
If I remember correctly this is how it is explained in a Brief History of Time.
captaninsayno
Veteran X
a giant vat of chocolate pudding
I thought the universe wasn't actually expanding?
We can only see further and further into it as time passes because it's taken this long for light from those places to reach us?
We can only see further and further into it as time passes because it's taken this long for light from those places to reach us?
Logic isn't allowed here.
It's expanding into the multiverse, duh.
Multiverse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Multiverse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
joeyarkenstat02
Veteran XV
wow, what a dumb explanation
according to that theory everything is relative in both size AND distance
a 1" by 1" square on a balloon will get much much bigger as the balloon blows up, i don't think everything in the universe is getting exponentially bigger as the universe expands
Just trying to read the multiverse wiki article explosioned me bwane
BlodBath-VuP-
Veteran XX
It was a simplified explanation for the layperson. The strong nuclear force holds objects together as the universe expands. Since planets and stars are infinitesimal on the scale of the universe they can be said to be points.
joeyarkenstat02
Veteran XV
well in terms of astro-physics, i am DEFINITELY a "layperson"
your explanation makes sense to no one
your explanation makes sense to no one
Actually his answer was quite good; everything does get further apart.
Everything, that is, except those which are bound together by forces (eg, the solar system or your computer). You can account for that by slightly modifying his example: Consider a balloon expanding (representing the universe) and two pennies glued to the balloon (representing you and your computer). As the universe expands, everything gets further from one another, but you don't get fatter, as there are forces keeping your shape as it is.
You're thinking about it the wrong way. It sounds like you're picturing the points as dots made by a marker or something, which obviously results in the analogy not making sense. Instead just think of them as singular points representing the locations of stellar objects, and nothing more than that.
The reason for the balloon analogy is mainly to explain that the universe isn't expanding out from a single point -- it's more as if the space itself between all of the objects is expanding (AFAIK.)
Basically, yes.
The Universe is expanding and the visible Universe is actually getting smaller because the rate of expansion exceeds the speed of light.
Except that logic is entirely faulty.
Nuclear and gravitational forces hold objects together for now. One possible end of the universe scenario is the Big Rip in which the rate of expansion reaches such a high level as to overcome gravity which will tear apart galaxies, stars, and planets, and then the nuclear forces to tear apart atoms themselves.
Also this gets asked all the time: Curious About Astronomy: What is the universe expanding into?