Posted: Oct 05, 2011 8:27 pm
Dudely wrote:It means that everything in the universe is getting further apart, relatively speaking. It's kind of like bread dough with raisins or something in it. As it sits on the counter to rise the raisins get further apart...
Now, I get this but, relatively speaking of course, are the raisins expanding, and their pips too?
Dudely wrote:Remember, you can't think about the universe in a normal three-dimensional way because it IS the normal three dimensions. Asking what it's expanding into, for example, is like asking what happens when you go south of the south pole.
The notion of what the universe is or might be expanding into is an interesting one, but in the sense of what the universe will become rather than in the sense of what volume it is occupying or inhabiting. However...
Saying that "everything in the universe is getting further apart" specifically seems to conjure the idea of a volume - for if thing-A and thing-B are getting further apart then the volume of the universe which encompasses both of them is also increasing. The conception of the universe being a thing which comprises and/or is occupying a bounded volume, like the dough ball etc., seems to come along with the discovery that the universe 'expands' I think.
Hmm.
