Quote:
If you are saying that matter itself is not expanding, as in the protons in an Oxygen molecule moving away from each other, and the subatomic particles within the protons moving away from each other, then yes, you are correct. But the space in which the particles move is getting larger.
Addendum:
The idea that you are proposing, that the universe is not expanding but that objects within it are merely moving with their own intrinsic velocities, is invalidated by the fact that all galaxies are observed to be all moving away from our vantage point of the Earth. All of them, every single one, everywhere, in every direction we look.
-dale
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The only thing that is happening is that certain existents (Galaxies) are spreading apart. That is not the same thing as saying that the Universe - the sum of all that exists - is expanding. Something with no boundries (e.g. the Universe), by definition, can not expand.
I think this is what people mean when they say the Universe is expanding. My only point, is that it is a misuse of the concept of the Universe.
If the Universe - the sum of all that exists - were expanding, it would have to expand into something that doesn't exist for it to expand into.