Forums → WEPR → Space the final frontier????

i mean others may define the universe differently than i do but basically... if i could live that long... and a ship could make it there... if i could travel there then its part of the universe...

i guess you could view the expansion of the universe as linear... or quadratic... whatever.... what i'm getting at is you could graph it theoretically. some here are claiming, converted to my word usage, that the universe is simlar to a line being pointed in any given direction... a line being a never ending connection of points in a 180 degree angle. this would mean that the "line" isn't increasing in length... it already is that length. the line no sooner crosses the point 2 inches forward as it does the point 10 billion light years from it. that's how a line works correct?

if the universe is expanding then there is a rate to it... it will be at the point 2 inches from it sooner than it will be at the point 10billion light years from it. if the "line" has a rate to how fast it is travelling then it will only ever reach infinity if given an infinite amount of time to continue moving and expanding. in this way i see our universe like a giant sphere... or disc... i don't know the shape... but I'm assuming that it expands at its boundaries similar to that of a sphere... similar to a balloon being inflated... being that there is a rate to the expansion I cannot say that the amount of space in our universe is unlimited. I will only say that there is more than my mind can fathom... which in itself is a way of fathoming it.

"yup... my brain stopped" ~Ed~

The shape of the universe is determined by a struggle between the momentum of expansion and the pull of gravity. The simplest version of the inflationary theory predicts that the density of the universe is very close to the critical density, and that the geometry of the universe is flat, like a sheet of paper. Actually we now know that the universe is flat with only a 2% margin of error.
So, if its flat how can it expand like a sphere (while still remaining flat)?

Tantalising evidence hints Universe is finite

So, if its flat how can it expand like a sphere (while still remaining flat)?

In my opinion, time travel and the control of the matter of space itself is more a final frontier. Do you agree?

What Avorne pointed out is correct. Also, we already have a very good estimate of where the edge of the universe is, and beyond that it's impossible to say. I would imagine that there is pure nothingness beyond our universe, no matter, no energy, nothing. Not even subatomic particles. If our universe is the result of an expansion of all matter which was condensed into a singularity then it would stand to reason that beyond our universe there is no matter of any kind.