How can the infinite universe expand?

I was just wondering, cause i have heard it alot growing up. My teachers would say it, my science book, my parents. Can u guys tell me how, or if it really is? ty

to be honest we still dont know

the universe was once thought as static, but it seems not!! its expanding.. the more we mesure it the faster it expands

we aint got a clue, thats the best and only thing i know so far.. its got alot to do wiht gravity darkmatter and dark energy..

But how? who knows just one of them questions mankind does not yet understand

hope that helps

kinda. seems like i asked a currently un-answerable question. ill do some research and see what the webs got. ty tho

I don't believe the Universe is infinite by definition, since technically that would be impossible. I think that any observation we have about the universe should be taken with a grain of salt because we have only been observing for such a short period of time reletive to the age of the universe. Maybe it has a tidal effect with expansion and contraction, or maybe it was all compressed to a point of infinite density before it exploded outward??? Who knows, it would take millions of years of observation to figure it out, and we still don't know how gravity works. We are just a blip on the cosmic timeline, and the way the human race is heading it won't be a very long blip.
Just my thoughts

-E-

Well if something is infinite it cant expand it occupies all the space that is possible to have.

I know that science imply that everything that exists makes up what we call space. But if it expands it has to have a different space to expand within. If not science uses the wrong definition they should tell us that space is changing not expanding.

Expanding means getting bigger and infinite cant expand, its as big as it gets it has no beginning or end.

Changes mean turning into a different dimension then it used to have.


[edit on 27.06.08 by spy66]

Maybe this will help!
Good stuff

hubblesite.org...

The was i always tried to put it into prespective for myself is by imagining the universe as a infinatly long elastic band, allthough the elastic band is infanatly long it is still able to sreach and expand. anyone else have a better analogy? althouh i dont believe were even close to understanding he universe and how it works and i dont nesiciarly believe the universe is infanatly big, the analogy i provided would work if it was.

[edit on 10-4-2009 by tylerc25211]

According to quantum-loop gravity theory the universe is NOT infinite. It will reach a maximum expansion and then "recoil" back to a single point. Then another Big Bang and another expansion. Interesting to see if that turns out to be true.

reply to post by spy66

Thats whats always got me too, whats the universe expanding into?
Does that mean the universe was always ther but the big bang has gradually begun filling it out?
And what was the emptyness before? Where did that come from and how did that get there?

Sorry for the brain bender

I did some research on it, and i agree. It isnt expanding per say, merely stretching. All the galaxies are getting bigger. Maybe it is just an elusion to stretching or expanding tho. we'll find out one day, i hope.

reply to post by AntiConspirator


I think it will be a while before we understand the universe. The matter seems a bit grand for our late model primate brains.

so if the universe expands and comes back, what is outside of the universe then?


my personally, i never thought of hte universe itself expading, just the stuff that is in it.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
so if the universe expands and comes back, what is outside of the universe then?


my personally, i never thought of hte universe itself expading, just the stuff that is in it.

Why does there have to be something outside the Universe? What's in the spaces between atoms?

The universe is not expanding, it is inflating. If the universe were expanding, more force would be be pulling it back than allowing it to continue. You can do this with the elastic band test. Hold the elastic band between your index fingers at rest. Now exert force of expansion by pulling the ends. See how it takes more force to expand than is in the force of the elastic band to contract. yet there is a constant increasing of force trying to pull the elastic band back. Now, if thermodynamics is correct, then the force of expansion is equal to the force of contraction.

But since the universe is inflating, it means that at the source of this inflation, there is incoming force greater than the force of the surrounding universe. In other words, something is emptying itself into our universe from somewhere else. Should that stop, inflation will stop but it will not deflate. Should it flow back to where it came from, the universe would deflate. You can prove this with the balloon test. Take a ballon without air. See how it is stable. Now begin to blow air into it and watch as it begins to inflate. When you stop blowing air into it it becomes stable. This is your universe.

My own theory on this is, that what we see as huge and awesome may be very tiny in another universe. we, that is, our universe may be an atomic particle in some other universe.

What science needs to do is back-track to the point of time it all began and search that area for increased energy and mass. There you will find the point where it flows into our universe.

reply to post by Gawdzilla


Just space. But that is the same thing outside of our solar system, which is much like that atom. And that is what is expanding. So what is outside of that?

ack! can drive yourself crazy thinking about it.

I heard it explained once that the human mind is just not powerful enough to imagine an infinite universe. So really you will only stress yourself trying to think about it.

reply to post by nixie_nox


The space where there is nothing is just that, nothing. So the only "space" that matters is the space where matter/energy exists.

I dont think we are expanding into anything.Or if we are its a different type of space that all the branes float about it in..or something..

Originally posted by cropmuncher
reply to post by spy66

 

Thats whats always got me too, whats the universe expanding into?
Does that mean the universe was always ther but the big bang has gradually begun filling it out?
And what was the emptyness before? Where did that come from and how did that get there?

Sorry for the brain bender

You can get a picture of infinity by looking at it this way to:

Infinity is also all the time that is possible to have. But time can't be both past, present and future at the same time. Time is always on time. Because time is clocked by changes in matter. Each matter has its own time or changes. But they all change on time.

Now the question is if we have time can time be infinity. Well there is one thing you cant do with time and that is you cant stop it and go back.

We know we have a past space time. but we can never go back to it. So the past dont really exist anymore its just a memory.

But since everything changes at a different rate we have problems seeing the big picture. Because we live in a universe that changes on a different scale of time then we do.

We look at things and think we are in the middle of everything. And when we look to the sides we see things far away. And when we bring out the binoculars we see things even further away.

But what dose this tell you about infinity ?

You could probably look in all directions and never find the end. You would see something new all the time.

The most logical theory that I have experienced is that:

This universe is expanding as it pulls energy from its contracting polar opposite universe on the other side of the black hole at the center of the universe.

There are an infinite number of scalar universes that each have a polar opposite dark energy universe that balances polarity in a dualistic model

I would recommend the work of Nassim Haramein which I discovered from a previous ATS thread

reply to post by AntiConspirator


Matter is finite. Space and time are infinite.

Hope that helps.