Is the Universe Infinite?
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Explore the biggest question of all. How far do the stars stretch out into space? And what's beyond them? In modern times, we built giant telescopes that have allowed us to cast our gaze deep into the universe. Astronomers have been able to look back to near the time of its birth. They've reconstructed the course of cosmic history in astonishing detail. From intensive computer modeling, and myriad close observations, they've uncovered important clues to its ongoing evolution. Many now conclude that what we can see, the stars and galaxies that stretch out to the limits of our vision, represent only a small fraction of all there is. Does the universe go on forever? Where do we fit within it? And how would the great thinkers have wrapped their brains around the far-out ideas on today's cutting edge? For those who find infinity hard to grasp, even troubling, you're not alone. It's a concept that has long tormented even the best minds. Over two thousand years ago, the Greek mathematician Pythagoras and his followers saw numerical relationships as the key to understanding the world around them. But in their investigation of geometric shapes, they discovered that some important ratios could not be expressed in simple numbers. Take the circumference of a circle to its diameter, called Pi. Computer scientists recently calculated Pi to 5 trillion digits, confirming what the Greeks learned: there are no repeating patterns and no ending in sight. The discovery of the so-called irrational numbers like Pi was so disturbing, legend has it, that one member of the Pythagorian cult, Hippassus, was drowned at sea for divulging their existence. A century later, the philosopher Zeno brought infinity into the open with a series of paradoxes: situations that are true, but strongly counter-intuitive. In this modern update of one of Zeno's paradoxes, say you have arrived at an intersection. But you are only allowed to cross the street in increments of half the distance to the other side. So to cross this finite distance, you must take an infinite number of steps. In math today, it's a given that you can subdivide any length an infinite number of times, or find an infinity of points along a line. What made the idea of infinity so troubling to the Greeks is that it clashed with their goal of using numbers to explain the workings of the real world. To the philosopher Aristotle, a century after Zeno, infinity evoked the formless chaos from which the world was thought to have emerged: a primordial state with no natural laws or limits, devoid of all form and content. But if the universe is finite, what would happen if a warrior traveled to the edge and tossed a spear? Where would it go? It would not fly off on an infinite journey, Aristotle said. Rather, it would join the motion of the stars in a crystalline sphere that encircled the Earth. To preserve the idea of a limited universe, Aristotle would craft an historic distinction. On the one hand, Aristotle pointed to the irrational numbers such as Pi. Each new calculation results in an additional digit, but the final, final number in the string can never be specified. So Aristotle called it "potentially" infinite. Then there's the "actually infinite," like the total number of points or subdivisions along a line. It's literally uncountable. Aristotle reserved the status of "actually infinite" for the so-called "prime mover" that created the world and is beyond our capacity to understand. This became the basis for what's called the Cosmological, or First Cause, argument for the existence of God.
Comments
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I'm so dumb
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OK so like are we all in agreement as to the number of grains of sand there are out there?
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It' not infinite. their are limitations to all our known reality because their is a set number of all possible conclusions that can possibly exist. Not that numbers and math have a limit but the total number of real possibilities is conclusive at a single point. It's not much to worry about though. The total is very high. the human mind cannot comprehend this and even with the most advanced computers you would still need to input all relevant data into the computer to properly compute the data to reach the conclusion. Infinity is not a number but a definition for a number we have not used or reached yet at least most haven't but of course someone has.
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1:24 and here is s one that I bet you can't answer what is the meaning of life
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Our universe 100.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 x 46.000.000.000 lightyears in diameter, I have to admit, is quite quite quite big, but then still the key-question remains: what's beyond that? So really infinite seems much more plausible.
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Infinite Possibilities = Consciousness. Consciousness is a by-product of Infinity, one of all and every probability. Yet unlike the monkey that can write Shakespeare, consciousness overruled all other events in the list of probabilities by creating the power to create any possibility through the power of thought. The by-product of infinity (consciousness) can be likened to a sea of power (visualise the untuned TV), the power created the first probability (the universe) from a list of probabilities and the big bang occurred before the monkey writing shakespeare and evolution followed. Infinity was dominated by conscious power as the favoured probability. Once consciousness had a vessel to live inside (life), the power to influence infinite possibilities followed. Once we die, we will go back to the infinite sea of consciousness and become part of infinity once more.
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why is the video too long? there's only 2 answers. yes or no. so it takes 20 min. to answer yes/no?
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I think it is infinite. I used to think universe was a sphere, where if u go to the edge, you'll come back through the opposite side of the sphere. More like a trap. But now, I think it is infinite. But we don't know what infinite is. Infinite space is not nothing. Space is nothing that makes it a 'thing'. Islam has the answer. It's hard to explain. But it also says that God has limited our brain. Knowledge capacity is not infinite. So does the understanding ability. Islam also says the the next life is infinite. No death again. Something is fishy, like I have found some puzzle piece. Maybe there are more universes and this universe was created for humans to be tested. Mystery is amazing man.
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Sometimes I think there's a limit in space. And at the very limit there's a big giant deep edge on the end of space. And I wonder if there is a edge in space, then what's beyond the edge?
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Does exist exist? Does ___ Exist? What exists? Nothing exists....
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هذا من فضل ربي
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i cant sleep. its late 04:35am - And now my mind starts to question my purpose of exsistense.
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Hilbert's paradox of Grand Hotel is pure stupidity.
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dumbest documentary ever.
purely based on assumptions, and the dumb ones too -
space is ∞, their problem solved go watch a new video
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If space is expanding why is the Milky Way on a collision course with andromeda? Shouldn't galaxies close to us move away just at a slower rate than one that's much farther away? They also say that any point in the universe is the center of it, so galaxies moving apart would make sense!
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The way I see it is if time is infinite there are 2 possibilities.
1. Nothing could ever have happened including the big bang as it would be impossible to reach a point along an infinite timeline at which the conditions for the big bang where met.
2. Steven Hawking theorised if time is infinite, every conceivable event should have already taken place and everywhere in the sky we point a telescope would reveal the bright light of an exploding star.
So I believe time started with the big bang so the cause of the big bang must therefore be unaffected by time.
It must also be supernatural as time is natural. -
Watching this video again I have a new theory about infinite. NASA and astronomers have said the universe is always expanding as galaxies, stars, and everything keeps going away from another. Which of course comes to the theory of the universe has an edge at some part as it keeps expanding. Well, my theory is the universe is already infinite and the universe isn't moving at all, it's rather a large nothingness of things within it where the galaxies and stars and everything is moving away and the universe has just always been infinite with them moving. Therefore my theory also concludes that the big bang was rather a large bang of galaxies and stars and rock like material thrown bang out into the universe. I don't know how I can think like this, but my mind thinks of more about things than what are told.
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My teori is that the univers isnt eturnal, there is an edge. That edge is unreacheble and will forever be. If the big bang happened it happened cause there was a problem, the problem was the lak of space. So it had to get bigger and it blew up. Then it started growing and growing and growing until the energi of big bang had vannisied. Soon when the univers had stud still for a while the gravitation pull from all the planets and things in space would pull it back. Faster and faster and faster back, basicly the opposite to what happend before it stoped growing.
After a while the univers have been shrinking for a while it will be the same size as it was before big bang. Then we got the same problem as big bang solved. And it will explode again and again and forever again.
And the reason why we cant travel outside this univers is cause we are able to travel way to slow. Lets say that the univers is expanding at the speed of light, then we would have to travel faster then the speed of light to get to the edge again. (Since we were at the edge before the big bang)
And big bang happened at year 0 lets say, then at year 0 we were at the edge, now we will again be at year 0 since we are at the same distance and place ss before which means that time has gone back. And we will once again repete the process of the big bang.
Outside our univers is in a white box, and that white box will never be filled since we're goimg back intime and shrinking the size of our univers.
This is just my teori. -
No the universe isn't infinite. The multiverse maybe
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