I hear from time to time scientists say that the universe is "getting bigger".
When the universe "ends", what's on the other side? Does my question make sense?

scientists dont know what their talking about half the time. and the other half they do but they have an agenda in mind. so id just ignore them when they say the universe is expanding. i have no faith in science.

Originally posted by utopia
scientists dont know what their talking about half the time. and the other half they do but they have an agenda in mind. so id just ignore them when they say the universe is expanding. i have no faith in science.
I'm sure you'd love living in the dark ages, then...without electricity...or medicine...I mean, wow, life sure was better without that pesky science! Gee whiz!

Originally posted by Uhlouis
I hear from time to time scientists say that the universe is "getting bigger".
When the universe "ends", what's on the other side? Does my question make sense?

It collapes in on itself, and then expands, and then collapses or so my science lessons told me.

Originally posted by Uhlouis
I hear from time to time scientists say that the universe is "getting bigger".
When the universe "ends", what's on the other side? Does my question make sense?
You'll find the answer here (http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=274)

Hehe, anyone know what the average population of the universe is?
note: think hitchhikers guide...

Is that with or without towels?

Originally posted by Evil Homer
Hehe, anyone know what the average population of the universe is?
note: think hitchhikers guide...
Duh, it's zero...thus, there are no people in the universe at all...

While we're at it, the ship hung in the air in much the same way bricks don't.

Originally posted by Evil Homer
Hehe, anyone know what the average population of the universe is?

The same as what the Earth's is.

Originally posted by the J Man
The same as what the Earth's is.

says the J-Man, NASA scientist and interplanetary space explorer!

Originally posted by the J Man
The same as what the Earth's is.
So you've visited every other planet in the universe, then, and thus have demonstatively proven that no life exists anywhere else? Did you find your extraordinary arrogance out there, too?

Originally posted by BorgHunter
So you've visited every other planet in the universe, then, and thus have demonstatively proven that no life exists anywhere else?

Your the one who said that there is no people there at all.

Did you find your extraordinary arrogance out there, too?

Those who have to resort to personal attacks are filled with extraordinary arrogance.

Originally posted by the J Man
Your the one who said that there is no people there at all.
It was a joke. A reference to a book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Great book, you should read it sometime.
Those who have to resort to personal attacks are filled with extraordinary arrogance.
Unless you have proof that there is no life outside of Earth, then you are arrogant for making the claim that there is none.

Tell me, do you have proof?

Originally posted by BorgHunter
It was a joke. A reference to a book called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Great book, you should read it sometime.

Unless you have proof that there is no life outside of Earth, then you are arrogant for making the claim that there is none.

Tell me, do you have proof?

With all the technology that they have nowadays and the fact that they can send satelites to other planets to see what is there and the high powered telescopes that they have, how come they never find proof life but can find out what is on the planet? They know that Jupiter and Saturn are filled with gases and that Mars is red, they know that the starts vary greatly in size, some being significantly larger than the sun, and others being as small as a house, they know comets and the veil nebula, but they cannot discover life on other planet?:rolleyes:

Originally posted by the J Man
but they cannot discover life on other planet?:rolleyes:

There's a bit of a distance problem J Man. A message traveling at the speed of light to the closest solar system to our own would take many hundreds/thousands/millions of years to reach its destination.

Originally posted by the J Man
With all the technology that they have nowadays and the fact that they can send satelites to other planets to see what is there and the high powered telescopes that they have, how come they never find proof life but can find out what is on the planet? They know that Jupiter and Saturn are filled with gases and that Mars is red, they know that the starts vary greatly in size, some being significantly larger than the sun, and others being as small as a house, they know comets and the veil nebula, but they cannot discover life on other planet?:rolleyes:
There is a humongous difference between sending probes to Saturn , which is some 800 million miles away from Earth, and sending probes to another star system (the closest being Proxima Centauri, which is 4.22 light years, or if you prefer, 24 trillion miles away). Stars are also very easy to spot. You may have seen them yourself, in fact. They're generally quite large, and they emit light. They also emit tons of radiation in the form of X-rays, microwaves, ultraviolet, infared, and tons of other EM spectrum radiation. Thus, they're quite easy to spot.

Life? Very difficult. In case you haven't noticed, living creatures seem to be quite small in comparison to even the smallest planet, not to mention great big glowing stars. If life exists elsewhere, unless it actively tries to contact us, we'll have a helluva time trying to find it. We can't go very far, even with unmanned probes. I'd be amazed if a probe ever entered the Proxima Centauri system...

Not to mention we're not even sure if there isn't life on Jupiter and Saturn since we can't get good enough readings from deep within it.

Originally posted by Uhlouis
I hear from time to time scientists say that the universe is "getting bigger".
When the universe "ends", what's on the other side? Does my question make sense?

That's a reasonable question, though highly problematic.

The reason we hear many strange things from cosmologists regarding the nature of the universe is you can only meaningfully discuss such matters in the language of mathematics. When science popularisers and the media try to interpret mathematical discussion into plain English a lot of the detail and sense is naturally lost.

The universe "getting bigger" is a mathematical formation of the fact that the stars are observed to be racing away from each other. Of course, the reason for this is space itself is expanding. The analogy - not a very robust one but again outside of talking equations that's inevitable - would be covering a deflated ballon with dots and then blowing it up. The dots do not move away from each other across the surface, rather the surface itself expands.

As to what is on the "other side" then the balloon analogy does not work. The definition of the universe is everything - if there was indeed another side it would simply be part of the universe by definition. Remember that space itself is a component of the universe and so the question is not really viable other than as a 'thought provoking' exercise.

It's fun to think about such things though, I'm sure you'll agree.

Use the Earth as an analogy. A sphere is unending to one who can only travel along it's surface. Once you can travel in a third dimension, you can leave the Earth.

The Universe is a four dimensional sphere. Length, Width, and Height all wrap around in a fourth spatial dimension and meet themselves such that you could travel in one direction and eventually end up where you started. We cannot get "off" of the Universe unless we learn to travel along a fourth dimension.

Originally posted by Ed Blank
We cannot get "off" of the Universe unless we learn to travel along a fourth dimension.
We travel along the fourth dimension all the time, at the constant velocity of one second per second (forward in time). What we need to do is figure out how to speed up, slow down, or turn around...

Originally posted by BorgHunter
We travel along the fourth dimension all the time, at the constant velocity of one second per second (forward in time). What we need to do is figure out how to speed up, slow down, or turn around...
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I guess that is the worm hole- folding of time, that Einstein spoke of.

We travel along the fourth dimension all the time, at the constant velocity of one second per second (forward in time). What we need to do is figure out how to speed up, slow down, or turn around...

Time is something created by man. There is no 500 b.c. to go back to, there's no 500 years from now, there's just the present.

Originally posted by Uhlouis
Time is something created by man. There is no 500 b.c. to go back to, there's no 500 years from now, there's just the present.
Then how do you explain relativity?

Forget relativity. If time does not exist how would you explain velocity, Which is the distance something travels in a period of time. Acceleration is the change in velocity in a unit of time. Time is essential to even Newtonian physics. It clearly exists.

Time is tricky. It exists because things happen in order and not all at once or backwards, and it is also an abstract idea. To technically, everyone is right.

Time is real.

Try to stop aging.

Fly around at the speed of light. then see how fast you age.