Question

till yesterday i believed that the universe was finite and boundary-less but recent studies on cosmic microwave bg shows that our universe is infinte...this is just mind-boggling..so what are your opinions?let the battle begin finite or infinite?

Answer 1

If it is finite then what is outside of this finite universe.

Answer 2

But sometime, I think it is finite and like the surface of earth. No matter from which point we start and move in the same direction, we will reach same starting point.
But In the case of universe I think it is of 3D whereas in the case of earth's surface it was 2D .... And I also tried to think of such 3D space and its overall shape but I couldn't reach it.

Answer 3

finite or infinite is something that makes sense INSIDE our universe.. so strictly speaking whether universe is FINITE or INFINITE doesn't really make sense ;-).. its like asking what was BEFORE the big bang.. it doesn't make sense.. cause time STARTED at the time of big bang.. and since BEFORE and AFTER are properties of time, you can't ask that question!!.. but universe is not static.. this is proved.. cause all galaxies and stars are giving us RED shifts.. doppler effect of light. which proves they are moving away from us.. and whats more interesting is that the expansion of the universe is actually ACCELERATING.. this is one the biggest mysteries.. however there are theories to try and explain this!

Answer 4

I'm not an authority on astrophysics but I thought I'd share my two cents :P @Mashy brings up a good point in his first sentence. To respond to @sauravshakya, the simple answer is that there is "nothing" outside our universe if it is finite, since existence is a term relative to and contained within our universe (i.e. if something is not within our universe, it cannot exist). [Side point/question - if the multiverse theory is true, how are different universes organized in relation to one other? Is there an intervening..."space"? What is it composed of?]

A better answer may be that our universe may be expanding into a higher dimension of space that we cannot detect naturally. For instance, imagine a speck on the surface of an infinitely large deflated balloon. Its immediate surroundings appear entirely 2D in all directions (in an xy plane). However, suppose a person comes along and begins blowing up that balloon. The speck still only sees a 2D world but you, a human in a 3D world, can see quite clearly that the 2D surface of the balloon is expanding into 3D space. Perhaps something similar is happening with our 3D world (e.g. expanding into a 4D of even high-dimensional one).

Anyways just some food for thought. Interesting question :)

Answer 5

i believe its totally a waste of time trying to think about higher dimensions in the first place.. cause.. if the concept of dimensions is right.. then we as 3d beings are not allowed to access or conceive any ideas about higher dimensions.. so why try to put them in math and stuff anyways? :P.. string theory has what.. 11 or 32 dimensions.. thats only to make the math work!! but physically its impossible to even begin thinking about them.. cause we are not allowed to.. its more like how we have characters in games whos thinking is confined to only the game.. the character cannot think of anything OUTSIDE the game right!.. now you might say thats cause its US who created the game and we have limited its capabilities.. so similarly there is higher being who must have created us (m not diverging into a philosophical discussion about whether god exists or not :P ) .. but it makes perfect sense that way.. atleast to me :D.. So .. you may ask.. if i am right.. should we stop trying to think about it?? should we stop all our research?? whats our purpose then?? well we have purpose in our good old 3d world.. there are so many things unexplained within our conceivable world itself.. we could start focusing more on that.. try to get all the answers .. and then IF we are finally done answering EVERYTHING in our 3d world. (which m quite sure is very difficult ).. then lets start thinking higher dimensions !!

Answer 6

I like the idea of higher dimensions. It led Einstein to consider time as a 4th dimension and ultimately gave us relativity theory. And if we focus only on 3-D problems and worry about the higher dimensions later we will likely have to rework our 3-D models once we go to higher dimensions (like we did with physics after Einstein) As for the universe question, I'm a "finite but unbounded" kind of guy. But I also believe in a multiverse. Is the multiverse infinite? Or is it one of many multiverses in a maxiverse? (ok, i made up the last one but hey, we're speculating here, right?)

Answer 7

NO imean why go to higher dimensions in the first place.. its something that we will never understand.. (we are not supposed to.. ).. !!

Answer 8

I cannot accept that there are things we are not "supposed" to understand. We have the math to describe higher dimensions and just because we can't picture them physically doesn't mean they're not worth studying. Take quantum physics as an example. No one can picture the wave-particle duality, electron superposition, quantum tunneling, entanglement etc. but they are real things that have yielded technological breakthroughs and greatly furthered our understanding of nature. More importantly, it has shown us that our ordinary 3-D, macroscopic classical view is insufficient to describe nature. Like it or not, nature is not obvious and classical mechanics is only an approximate description of a small part of it.

Answer 9

yea i get that.. i am not saying something we cannot see .. we should not study .. but what i am saying is.. the concept of dimensions itself tells us thats its impossible for us conceive higher dimensions.. i mean a flat lander might have all the math he wants for string theory.. but he is NEVER EVER EVER EVER gonna see a CIRCLE.. completely like we do.. and he cannot even begin to imagine what a cube looks like .. and well.. he might have complicated 10 dimensional integrals and stuff.. but we know in reality how simple a cube is.. but look how much complicated he has made it.. !! and its unnecessary! :O