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Is there an edge to the universe?

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8==@
Posts: 29 - Karma: 10

is there an edge to the universe?

was there anything before the big bang?

is time travel possible?

is there such things as white holes?

what do you believe about the universe?

May 24 2008 4:36PM
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ChanchoVelez.
Posts: 1029 - Karma: 11
um...do i look like an astronomer?
May 24 2008 4:39PM
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chimp
Posts: 616 - Karma: 117
is there such thing as google search?
May 24 2008 4:40PM
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AptosFreeskier
Posts: 1240 - Karma: 17
There couldn't be an edge to the universe because if there was an edge to the universe that means there would have to be space beyond the universe, but since the universe is everything ever there is not an edge to the universe.

Deductive reasoning, YA RLY.
May 24 2008 4:46PM
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connoroh
Posts: 2333 - Karma: 246
lolz. i just did an isu on inflation theory...

there was nothing before the big bang, there is no edge to the universe, and its impossible to get to it if there is one, white holes are the other end of a worm hole, and worm holes are theoretical tingz...

i suck
May 24 2008 4:56PM
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TerminatorX
Posts: 3087 - Karma: 169

is there an edge to the universe? no the universe is expanding

was there anything before the big bang? antimatter

is time travel possible? no

is there such things as white holes? probably not

what do you believe about the universe? i dot know. i am not a scientist
May 24 2008 4:56PM
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dave44
Posts: 11052 - Karma: 113
Assuming that the Big Bang created everything, it's impossible for there to be anything beyond the universe. It can't even be expanding 'into the void' because even 'the void' has geometric properties. However, it's possible that the universe is finite (not infinite) and still not have an edge. The surface of a sphere is finite, yet there isn't an edge.

If the Big Bang created space AND time, it's impossible to say if there was anything BEFORE the Big Bang, unless time existed before or when the big bang occurred. By asking if there was anything before, and that's using time as a measurement and if thebig bang created time, then its just not possible to measure. There was nothing before, because there was no time.

Time travel into the future is possible. Travel in space at a high speed for a few years, come back, and you'll find people on Earth have aged faster than you. Several theoretical physicists have written theories that could possibly work but it would require the power of several galaxies or something like that, while travelling near the speed of sound (it's impossible, or nearly impossible to travel at the speed of sound).

Scientists are trying to find a single theory that can explain our existence. Einstein got us one step closer. Stephen Hawking is getting us closer. But ultimately, it's what we all strive to know. Most choose not to question the world in which we live. It's so deep.

In my opinion, though, I think the universe is finite. If infinite, then there must be something wrong with physics. Oh, and I haven't ruled out that there may be other universes.

I don't dislike deep thinking. I just don't like it.
May 24 2008 4:57PM
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BravoWhiskey5280
Posts: 4020 - Karma: 520
when ever I think about this my mind goes in so many different directions it gives me a headache
May 24 2008 4:58PM
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dave44
Posts: 11052 - Karma: 113

I meant the speed of light.

May 24 2008 4:59PM
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RICK_ROSS
Posts: 6983 - Karma: 3,343
the universe is infinite which means on some far away planet someone just asked the same question and someone is answering it like me.
May 24 2008 4:59PM
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dave44
Posts: 11052 - Karma: 113
Same. My mind was like exploding, it took so much effort to sort them out into individual answers.

It's like throbbing now. I hope I don't get asked a question like this for a while.

May 24 2008 5:00PM
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TerminatorX
Posts: 3087 - Karma: 169
i think you mean light. we can already travel faster than sound.
May 24 2008 5:01PM
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TerminatorX
Posts: 3087 - Karma: 169
 too late
May 24 2008 5:02PM
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connoroh
Posts: 2333 - Karma: 246
Its impossible to go the speed of light...

When you travel close to c, your relativistic mass increases exponentially, and you become infinitley heavy, and your momentum slows. You can't go that fast.

Also with traveling into the future, it's not traveling into the future, its just that since your clock ticks relatively slower than a viewer on earth, you age more slowly. Its not time travel...
May 24 2008 5:03PM
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emopoppins
Posts: 3996 - Karma: 269

i have a better question. if helen keller falls in the woods does it make a sound?

May 24 2008 5:04PM
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Ski_Unit_19
Posts: 8188 - Karma: 38
it is so hard to even begin to grasp what infinite is... so if you say the galaxy is infinite then there must be a infinite number of galaxies and if there are infinite galaxies then there are infinite stars and planets... so pretty much it is impossible for life not to exist outside our planet. or just incredibly improbable
May 24 2008 5:05PM
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ChrisMercer
Posts: 351 - Karma: 30
is there an edge to the universe?

---  of course. Maybe there is another universe and we are moving like plate tectonics.  Universe mountain ranges? I like the sound of that.

was there anything before the big bang?

---   yes. you can't have a big bang out of nothing.

 
is time travel possible?

---  definately...haven't you seen startrek or donnie darko?


is there such things as white holes?

--- black holes are just a label. there can be any color of hole you prefer. i prefer the pink ones.

what do you believe about the universe?

--- It is very interesting and hurts my small brain.
May 24 2008 5:16PM
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Reptar.
Posts: 1509 - Karma: 34
Big Bang Theory: At first there was nothing, then it exploded.
May 24 2008 5:26PM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
No one knows for sure.  All scientist can do is speculate.
May 24 2008 5:35PM
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huge-go
Posts: 1451 - Karma: 33
It is possible to get close to the speed of light, but to travel THE speed of light, is impossible as you mentioned.  Physicists have figured out the closer one gets to the speed of light, the heavier one gets, but once you reach the speed of light, the object going said speed has infinite mass, which is phsically impossible.
May 24 2008 5:37PM
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huge-go
Posts: 1451 - Karma: 33
Crap, I didn't read all the posts.
May 24 2008 5:38PM
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grubix2
Posts: 2628 - Karma: 25

A wormhole is technically theoretical, but definitely not impossible.  In theory the universe or portions of it aren´t entirely linear.  Meaning that there are portions that are folded over on top of each other.  It´s actually quite hard to explain without a diagram.  So here´s one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Worm3.jpg

But keep in mind that the diagram is only really an analogy.  Based on the diagram, ¨time travel¨is possible, because matter and time itself traveling through the wormhole travel a shorter distance than time and matter traveling around the other portion of the universe.  The universe is really so complex, that only a select few bright minds can even make postulates about its properties.

This also gets into the messy business of parallel universe theory.  Which would explain the results of time travel like a ¨branching river¨ or ¨pulling apart a piece of thread¨.  For example... if you theoretically went back into time and killed your own grandfather, the result would be 2 parallel universes.  One with the consquence of killing your own grandfather (for example you and your father not being born), and one which already contains your existance.

Seriously though... astrophysics and spacetime is a little much for NS discussion...

May 24 2008 5:40PM
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Xave
Posts: 2672 - Karma: 18
You know how the earth is round so it doesnt have any edge? The universe is kinda the same deal, only its in more dimensions.
May 24 2008 5:44PM
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MADmidwest
Posts: 1278 - Karma: 15
our earthly minds have been conformed to physics and can not comprehend such concepts as the Universe so stop trying or else your brain will implode
May 24 2008 6:02PM
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spiegel
Posts: 945 - Karma: 7
the ignorance in this thread is astounding.

god made everything, duh.
May 24 2008 6:03PM
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kepler.
Posts: 8761 - Karma: 139
Haha you kinda just butchered Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, but you came close. Basically all you need to know for a lot of theoretical ideas such as time dilation, length contraction, energy and mass, and countless other correlations is Einsteins constant gamma = 1/(1-(v^2/c^2))^.5

But to the thread creator, you are absolutely bonkers for asking that many in depth questions. I can give you yes or no answers to most of your questions (based on physics as we know today) but if you want true answers then you have to go more indepth. I'm too lazy to do that. But really, just take a few physics classes and your head will start to spin and you might be able to make more sense out of some of those questions.

And whoever said the universe is expanding without talking about the curvature of space, basically said nothing. Basically if the universe is curved negatively then there is no end, positively, there will be and end and eventually the universe will collapse into itself creating an occurence known to physicists as the Big Crunch. Also it could be flat but who really cares about that?

Thats the great thing about theoretical physics, pretty much anything is possible if you think about it.
May 24 2008 6:17PM
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kepler.
Posts: 8761 - Karma: 139
Haha we were just discussing this in my physics class a few days ago.

Consider the anthropic principle, which states simply that if one thing were changed in the entire history of the universe then, the universe as we know it today would be vastly different. Yeah basically saying what movies dealing in time travel have taught the masses. But maybe we don't have the elementary particles we have today, they could be totally different due to an occurence during some weird hadron era, lepton era, whatever the eras are called that occured in pico seconds. This could be used to support that we are alone in this universe. Personally I think its BS but it's possible. Everything in the billions of years old universe had to come together perfectly just for one intelligent race to come out of it. Makes you really think. Then again you could easily use the priciple to prove the opposite reasoning.
May 24 2008 6:40PM
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grifter
Posts: 933 - Karma: 102
no "edge" however there is an "event horizon" just like black holes, its the furthest point away from earth where light can travel, it is increasing at the speed of light,
May 24 2008 6:57PM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,123
is there an edge to the universe?

yes, but it is impposible to see because it is expanding out at the speed of light.

was there anything before the big bang?

god?
 
is time travel possible?

in a sense yes, you can age slower if you travel faster, its proven, so in 1 year you could come back and see the earth 40 years from now. going back? well i have no idea if you can do that


is there such things as white holes?

probably

what do you believe about the universe?

its fucked, why? why did it just happen
May 24 2008 7:12PM
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panojibber
Posts: 3382 - Karma: 216
But..... Is life always as we assume it is? Are we so ignorant to assume that intelligent thought is only capable if you are a carbon based life form? What if life exists elsewhere as another form, in some way that we don't understand or can't comprehend? And for all the people saying that the universe is everything, think multiverse theory. In addition, there could very well be something before the big bang because of the big crunch theory. If the cycle simply repeated itself time after time after time, then we could simply be a tiny part of a several hundred billion year cycle that constantly repeats itself. But then we have to ask ourselves where the anti-matter comes from that accompanies the big bang... Is there some place in deep deep space where the basic rules of physics and matter and energy do not apply, some massive repository of antiparticles that we don't know about? it is certainly possible that we don't really know any of what is truly in the universe, because all that we see from Earth is hundreds of millions of years old due to the travelling speed of light. If the big crunch was occuring and it was happening at almost the speed of light then we could be dead in 100 years due to the fact that we wouldn't see it coming right now. If the crunch happened faster than the speed of light then we could die in minutes from when I post this because we wouldn't be able to see it about to happen.
I recommend the book A Brief(er) History of Time.
May 24 2008 7:13PM
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