middle earth?

[claymore]

how do I prove to someone that the earth is not the exact center of the universe? His argument is that the universe is the same everywhere we look and we don`t see further in one direction than another, therefore improbable as it may be there is no way to prove it. Is he right? I will leave it to my learned friends on AB to save me ten dollars.

[heathfield]

The universe looks the same in all directions. There are limits to the distance we can see and those limits are also the same in all directions. So we will always be at the centre of our observable universe.
If the universe is infinite, it wouldn't matter where we were within it - we'd still find ourselves at the centre of our observable universe.

[jake-the-peg]

The question isn't meaningful - you're both right and both wrong.

It's like early map makers putting Jerusalem at the center of the Earth - it's meaningless on a spherical earth.

I'd say the bets are off

Although for awkwardnesess' sake you could argue that because the Earth orbits the sun which orbits the galactic centre (sorry center ;c) the Earth cannot be at the centre because it's not stationary!

[beso]

It is all relative. To observers on the earth we are at the centre. Same for observers at other locations.

However if you travel at the speed of light the whole Universe becomes a dot in front of you.

[fredpuli47]

Patently, the Earth isn't even near the centre of its own galaxy, but way out along one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. Don't know where in the universe our galaxy lies, but it seems pretty unlikely that it itself is in the centre!

But , as said, putting the question as worded, all bets should best be off.

[heathfield]

But, Jake, as the Earth moves in its orbit round the sun, the observable limits will also move by the same amount, so the Earth will still appear to be at the centre of the observable universe.

[claymore]

Heathfield, that answer just cost me ten dollars, my friend was right ,I was wrong , but it was worth the money to get a logical answer. cheers

[heathfield]

Sorry about that, Claymore. But hopefully your friend will at least buy you a drink out of his winnings!

[Rev. Green]

I agree that each person is at the centre of her/his Universe.
Each place has its own Universe surrounding it and this Universe is a very curious shape. Out to a radius of about ten milliard light-years the circumference of the Universe is about pi times its diameter. Further out the effect of looking at an older and smaller Universe becoms significant and the circumference becomes progressively smaller than you'd expect. Until at a radius of about 16 milliard light-years the circumference is zero - and we are inside it! Very curious.

milliard = Yankee billion = 1000 million