Quote:
Originally Posted by punkrockbong151
see, i have only been studying this kinda thing for about 2 yrs at the most (since i was 12) and i beleive that all is connected, the universe cannot be just a ball, i mean imagine that, a ball, and u go out side of it, how much space could ther be in between the balls, and would it be opposite of space meaning it would be white space, and how would this look wen u get within a light year of the edge? i doubt u could look out and see the the black end, i'm not sure wats out ther but i'm pretty sure wats not.....
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A ball? I think you may be misunderstanding some of the analogies used to describe the possible "shapes" of the universe.
I know a lot of books use a picture of a sphere, or the Earth, to describe one of the possible "shapes" of the Universe, but you have to realize that they don't mean "The Universe is contained in a fish bowl". They're a simplification, and often times an
oversimplification for the intended audience.
The one you seem to be referring to is that of the
Closed Universe, which is often portrayed as a sphere. Again, this isn't meant to imply that the Universe is encased in a giant shell, and it's especially not suggesting that you can go up to that shell and look outside. Rather, the sphere shown in pictures is an analogy -- it's saying that a Closed Universe is sort of like a sphere in a certain property. That property is that
there is no physical edge, but yet the total
volume of the Universe is finite, just as there is no physical edge to the
surface of the sphere, but that sphere has a finite and measureable
surface area. The surface of the ball shown in the pictures and diagrams is meant to represent the volume of the universe; the surface of the ball has 2 dimensions, but the ball itself exists in 3 dimensions. The volume of the universe has 3 dimensions, but the
hypersphere of the closed universe exists in 4 dimensions. 4 dimensions is really hard to draw on a 2D piece of paper, so they stick with ball/globe idea.
With that in mind, trying to look out beyond the edge of the Universe is a little bit like trying to walk off the edge of the Earth.