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Old 01-09-2006, 20:49 PM   #46 (permalink)
dalem
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bulgaroctonus
I need to think more on this.


There's the rub. I really don't know. I'll do some reading and thinking and get back to you on that.

It might be expanding into nothingness, quite simply. It is hard to visualize though.

I think very few humans, and probably no one on this board (no offense), have the necessary expertise in cosmology to speak with affirmation here.
In the model I gave above the universe, the three-dimensional space in which we exist, is represented by the two-dimensional surface of the balloon. As the balloon expands, and assuming infinite elasticity, then the surface - our universe - will also expand.

Now, the model falls apart when you ask "what is it expanding into?" because that is a much more mathematical question requiring a much more mathematical answer (mathematics that are far beyond my meager understanding, as well).

But don't rely on just me - google up or go to a bookstore and buy any book on cosmology or astrophysics by Gribbin, Hawking or Sagan (for starters).

-dale
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