Answer This one...

[Spartan_FFR]

SRY just a joke. but i do like to study this kind of thing its cool that ppl think about this kind of stuff too.

[navyseal101]

Ok, apparentley most of the people here believe the universe is infinite. So how can the universe be expanding if it's already infinite? Infinite should mean that it's already taking up all the space there is to take up, so to say it's expanding means it's not infinite yet but it still has time to go. Like if you take a balloon and blow it up inside a bottle, once it's covered all the edges and sides it can't go any further, therefor it's taken up the maximum amount of space inside the bottle and only then is it infinite. So relate the bottle to the boundries of the universe, asuming there is, and the balloon to the universe. If it's still expanding then it's not infinite. That leaves two things to believe, either you can believe the universe has no boundries and is just simply never ending or the universe is expanding still and hasn't reached it's outer "walls". I personaly believe the first one.

[GuidoHunter]

Ok, apparentley[sic] most of the people here believe the universe is infinite. So how can the universe be expanding if it's already infinite?

Read my original post. It's still theoretical, but it's a thought.

Infinite should mean that it's already taking up all the space there is to take up, so to say it's expanding means it's not infinite yet but it still has time to go.

Remember, the universe is by definition everything we know about and can see. I know this is a very transcendental idea, but the thought of the universe expanding is not as much that it's progressing further into some empty medium but that the objects inside the universe are getting further apart.

Like if you take a balloon and blow it up inside a bottle, once it's covered all the edges and sides it can't go any further, therefor it's taken up the maximum amount of space inside the bottle and only then is it infinite. So relate the bottle to the boundries of the universe, asuming there is, and the balloon to the universe.

So, in this example, what is the boundary of the universe? The bottle or the balloon? I know that this is explicitly answered in your question, but I urge you to rethink it. The universe is actually the balloon of your example and its contents. The boundary of the universe is represented by the rubber. There isn't actually any bottle or anything in between the bottle and the balloon.

This is where our views of the universe diverge. You're saying that the balloon represents all the matter that we can see, and that the bottle is the universe. The problem you're suggesting with the infinite expansionary universe is that when the balloon expands to the edges of the universe, it can't go anywhere from there, destroying either the infinite or inflationary adjective from the description of the universe.

I say you have a problem of definition. The universe is actually everything that we can observe. All the galaxies, stars, gases, comets, etc. that we can see in some form or fasion make up our universe, since it is, by definition, our all-encompassing world. Therefore, there is no bottle from your example. Our universe (The universe) is represented by the balloon and the contents of the universe the contents of the balloon. As the balloon expands, the molecules become further and further apart (spare the physical PC business or just assume we're heating the balloon rather than blowing it up), and the size of the balloon has no limit.

When physicists and astronomers say the universe is expanding, they're judging it relative to our position on Earth and relative to other celestial bodies (which are measured relative to Earth, to come back to that, but whatever). So, universal expansion is just the increase in distance between bodies. Well, if everything's getting further away from everything else, then the objects on the boundary of our universe must be getting further away from the center, ergo the universe is expanding.

Now, if you want to postulate a physical barrier outside of the universe that is going to stop it like a brick wall, I can't argue with you, but you won't find many people willing to agree.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[navyseal101]

I said in my last sentence of the post that I believe the "first explanation", the one where I said the universe is never ending. So I don't believe in any "walls". Your suggestion that the things inside the universe like the planets and stars and galaxies are getting father apart is perfectly logical and I have no problem agreeing with it. That makes sense. I just don't believe the empty space is moving outwards like the air and hydrogen because as I said before I already believe it's never ending.

[iced_fetto]

This is another good way to look at things.

Once people thought that the earth was just a flat plane, i think this is similar to what most people think about the universe.

Now pretend you lived much later into the future, do you think we might discover that this universe is actually a sphere.

This theory also answers the questions of the expanding universe idea, just like continents shift and over billions of years end up in different places, the expanding universe is just a swirling "expansion" of matter, where we are just revolving around something.

You would consider people to be expanding correct, well they are just going around the circular area that is earth moving this way and that, eventually bumping into itself.

What else is there to explain how the sun is kept in line with the rest of outer space, earth keeps people with it, the sun keeps the earth and other planets with it, and some core is probably keeping the sun with it.

sound good?