Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
On the edge of everything
Does anyone know, or can suggest, what you would see or encounter if you could position yourself right on the 'edge' of the universe - what would happen if you stretched out your arm? Physicists may claim that there's no 'edge' but you get my drift.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.There isn't an edge, there can't be cos the universe is everything and therefore it cannot have an edge. The imagination is limitless so there is nothing we cannot imagine and the universe is limitless so there is no limit. It defines the limits and therefore has to be outside the limits. Physicists say there is no edge for rather complex, maths reasons but from a philosophical point of view systems go from the smallest to the biggest, the smallest has no lowrer edge and the biggest has no upper edge. the universe is the biggest system so it cannot have an upper edge, otherwise something could theoretically be bigger by excedding that limit. Now that's some ancient Greek Style Logic right there. Not sure if they actually came up with that though, i just thought it now.
We may discover whether or not the universe has an edge.
If there's enough gravity it's closed and you'd travel all the way in one direction and end up where you started like an ant on the inside of a sphere - but in 3 directions.
There are complications in calculating whether or not the universe is closed like this because right now there is something called dark energy that we don't understand that seems to be messing things up a bit but I guess the Nobel prize committee need to be kept in a job so it's as well these things come up.
I think the balance of opinion at the moment is that the Universe is probably not closed like this. You could not reach the edge because it most likely expanded in it's early phase many times faster than the speed of light. (Although objects in the universe cannot break the light barrier as far as we know there's nothing that says the Universe itself cannot .
It's rather anybody's guess what would happen if you could get to the edge - very strange things happen in places like this - we know for example that in extreme gravitational fields concepts like time tend to break down and so therefore moving your hand (which takes time) would too. It's probable that this sort of effect would take place.
But even if somebody came up with a self-consistant theory - how could you ever test it?
If there's enough gravity it's closed and you'd travel all the way in one direction and end up where you started like an ant on the inside of a sphere - but in 3 directions.
There are complications in calculating whether or not the universe is closed like this because right now there is something called dark energy that we don't understand that seems to be messing things up a bit but I guess the Nobel prize committee need to be kept in a job so it's as well these things come up.
I think the balance of opinion at the moment is that the Universe is probably not closed like this. You could not reach the edge because it most likely expanded in it's early phase many times faster than the speed of light. (Although objects in the universe cannot break the light barrier as far as we know there's nothing that says the Universe itself cannot .
It's rather anybody's guess what would happen if you could get to the edge - very strange things happen in places like this - we know for example that in extreme gravitational fields concepts like time tend to break down and so therefore moving your hand (which takes time) would too. It's probable that this sort of effect would take place.
But even if somebody came up with a self-consistant theory - how could you ever test it?
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