Universe... is expanding?

I sat down and thought about it today with a friend.

We were talking about Red Shift and how it's proof of an expanding universe - fair enough.

But expanding how?

As we understand it at the moment, space is for lack of a better word, infinitely empty of space. Yes there is dust, gas, photons and other such matter and energy around the universe.

But what of the rest of it, the dark stuff, what is it?

For our common understand, yes space is just mostly nothing, but if it's nothing, What forces nothing to expand?

What's beyond the universe (nothing?) but what forces this nothingness to keep going..

Remember, nothing is nothing. But if there's nothing there, no matter, just space, what's causing empty space (nothing) to expand?

Is our universe just infinitely forever nothing but galaxies and star and we just can't fathom something without a beginning or end.

Or... is empty space actually something that we as humans have yet to scratch and sniff and understand..?

Remember.. what is causing nothingness of space to get expand?

But expanding how?

Well, originally it was the big bang, but what keeps it expanding is dark energy.

For our common understand, yes space is just mostly nothing, but if it's nothing, What forces nothing to expand?

Well space is'nt really nothing, we can only see something like 10% of it, and even in that there is quite a bit of stuff.

What is forcing the universe to expand is dark energy.

What's beyond the universe (nothing?) but what forces this nothingness to keep going..

We don't know what is outside of the universe, though it's most likely
a multiverse.
And even than, it may be that we're not expanding into it, but rather
the universe is infinent on the inside and finite on the outside.
There are lots of theories about it.

Galaxies are moving away from each other, but the actual galaxies themselves aren't expanding. The classic analogy is they're like raisin in a rising cake or bread. Dark energy isn't required to explain this fact, it could be simply momentum left over from the big bang. However, iori is right that some unknown force (dark energy) is required to explain the latest observations that the galaxies are moving away from each other at an accelerating pace.

I think what this poster is saying is what is causing matter or particles to expand and exist in the same instance as non matter and the spaces between matter.

No one actually knows this, and science has not explained it.

I am a spritiual person and versed in science enough to believe in what it says, but it gets to the point where it cannot explain this satisfactorily.

The very best solution I have found that satisfies everything is a matrix or an illusion. It does not detract from peoples faiths nor does it detract from existing science.

What I was trying to say is not of galaxies but space itself, the areas where there is nothing, what is pushing that (nothingness) more forward and how can nothingness be pushed upon if it is infact --> nothing.

The Nothingness of Empty Space has no properties (immediately) so how can some force act upon it to cause it to keep going..

This shall open to what is the fabric of reality as we know it and interdimensional travel

Originally posted by Masisoar

The Nothingness of Empty Space has no properties (immediately) so how can some force act upon it to cause it to keep going..

Well, I have the same problems. Bascially the question of how specetime *knows* how to behave. If it is pure geometry (as most theories suggest) then it is a geometric thing, not a physical thing. How do properties attach themselves to something which is not physical?

I think the only answer is not one of *how* but just to observe that there *is* this thing called spacetime, which is sui generis, i.e. don't compare it to nothingness, nor to phyiscal particles. It is what it is, and like nothing else we know, and what we obeserve it to be. These properties include behaving according to certain physical principles, including that of being able to expand, having a certain kind of geometry, being the medium in which physical effects take place (eg. quantum effects occur), being able to have particles/energy move through it, etc. But, if we are to follow Einstein properly then we have to accept all of this without imputing a physical nature to spacetime itself (that would be to make it the ether).

While this is all well and good, it does not solve my underlying perplexity. How does spacetime know how to behave?

But then again, that question underpins all of physics, because it is the question of how anything *knows* what it is meant to do. Even laws.

Cheers.

Rob.

*** BUMP **** more opinions.

I think what would help people understand it (similar to dj's cake analogy) is if you imagine space (the fabric of, not the matter itself) as a sponge. Even if there is no matter (raisin's) in a given volume of space (cake), there is still the sponge cake anyway. That is what is expanding.

Into what though, is a good question....

(it is theorised that the fabric of space is spengey. There are little bubbles of energy and other what-not's. This is where the zero-point energy theories come from. tapping into the fabric itself)

[edit on 23/2/07 by stumason]

What?

I thought the Universe is a infinitely sized box. The matter inside it appeared at the big bang and now all this matter is all flying away from the big bang, making everything IN the Universe spaced apart more.

I think other universes are other Universes, which are in a TOTALLY seperate realm.

We have lots to learn about the Universe we live in.

[edit on 26-2-2007 by PisTonZOR]