Ok, as I understand it the universe has no edges and isn't `inside' anything, it doesn't have a shape. I am having a hard time grasping this one....

If you could go outside the universe, and look at it as a big picture, you would see a shape, so how does that work? It must have some kind of shape...

Can someone explain this to me?

Hum,
it`s probably easier to think of the `outside` of the colour blue.

The universe contains space/time, there is no `outside` that can be perceived by something that need space-time to exist in.

The term `the void` is a nice handy way to describe the `nothing`(no space time) that the universe was born into.

As for shape, the word on the street says its shaped like a pichard horn...

(sry haven`t got a link)

I find it easier to comtemplate the shape and size of the universe by considering large finite chunks of it for which arbitrary centers and boundaries can be selected. A recommended choice for the center (operational center) is wherever you are and the boundary, from big bang and expansion imposed limitations, should be a sphere of no more than 100 billion light years but adjustable to accommodate the body of knowledge from which you operate. The observable universe seems to be very close to 13.7 billion light years in radius and a sphere is as good a shape as any until observation proves otherwise. This approach is based on the assumption that we occupy no special location and isotropy abounds.

__________________
For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?

shape? if you were to stand "outside" the Universe you'd see nothing.


our physical laws do not apply outside and thus light wouldn't necessarily make it to your eyes.







if you were standing on a plane, what shape would it be?

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

I am just having trouble picturing it in 3D...

Is the universe kinda flat? Is it as thick as it is wide? These questions have answers, but can we ever find them?

If in a 3d space one coordinate is set to a constant, you get a 2d space, a plane. Maybe this idea can be extended to 4d space. Set t=constant and get an ordinary 3d space. I'm not sure though that this is a good way of picturing the shape of universe.

__________________
Not because it is easy, but because it is hard...

There is no way to happiness,
happiness is the way.