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/sci/ - Science & Math

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8257536 No.8257536 [Reply] [Original]

I just went to a nice planetarium show and am an idiot, so bear with me here:

What's at the edge of the Universe? Not the observable universe, but the edge of the universe itself.

>it's expanding
What is it expanding into? I read the ants on a balloon analogy, but I don't quite understand what it means that the Universe is a 3D surface of the balloon rather than 2D.
>the Universe contains *everything*
I guess this is the hardest to wrestle with; it's like asking "what was before the beginning of time?"

>> No.8257567

>What's at the edge of the Universe
nothing
>What is it expanding into?
nothingness
>what was before the beginning of time?
we dunno

>> No.8257605

>>8257536
>I don't quite understand what it means that the Universe is a 3D surface
It's more like 6D

>> No.8257715

>>8257536
>what was before the beginning of time?

Since space and time is so intertwined we call it spacetime, that's like asking what was before space, and at the same time asking what was before time.

The answear is obviously, surprise surprise, nothing.

This is counting in the dimensions we can percive of course, I cant speak for the existence or state of dimensions I can't comprehend.

>> No.8257795
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8257795

>>>/x/ here again
This is a serious question regarding inflation

If the Plank Entity is a balloon AND the Universe (balloon) is expanding, are all points on the surface of the balloon actually the same point?

Is the surface of the balloon really a point?
If not, why not?
How else can the Universe have no edge?

>> No.8257880
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8257880

Here are some things I've heard without sources. Take them as thought provoking if nothing else.
>>8257536
>What's at the edge of the Universe? Not the observable universe, but the edge of the universe itself.
Space is like old video games: If you move out of the screen somewhere you come back from the other side. So there are no edges -or rather, any place can be a point where you stop getting farther from a chosen point and start to get closer.

>it's expanding What is it expanding into?
Think about a piece of rising bread dough. There isn't a more dough that appears around the existing dough but rather the texture and attributes of the existing dough change in a way that it takes now more space.

In the same way more space appears everywhere "between" existing points. We can't see it in our everyday lives because for example molecules in your body pull themselves back together stronger than expanding pulls them apart.
However we can see expanding space appearing between galaxies.