3 ms·
> But also in this analogy if the bug travels long enough in what to it seems a straight line, it will wind up back where it started. Does this hold true for th
by WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> But also in this analogy if the bug travels long enough in what to it seems a straight line, it will wind up back where it started. Does this hold true for the universe as well?
That’s indeed a very important question. The shape of the universe is a subject of study in cosmology.
The property you mention relates to its curvature (hyperbolic, flat or spheric). Experimental data shows that the observable universe is flat which means the universe is either flat or sufficiently big for the observable universe to appear flat as a local area.
> If not, how can the universe have no edge?
What we see of the universe indeed as an edge. Light takes time to travel. It means that the farther you look the earlier you look and we can’t look farther than the beginning of time.
- suzzer99 4y agoIs it true that if the universe is flat, then either it has to have an edge (meaning a place where you see galaxies in one direction and nothing in the other), or it has to have an infinite number of galaxies?
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoI’m not entirely sure of that to be honest with you. I seem to remember than counterintuitively you can embed a flat torus in 3D but it goes further than my knowledge. It means it’s not a “small” hypersphere, that’s for sure.
- sliken 4y ago"Experimental data shows that the observable universe is flat", agreed. However the research put a maximum bound on it's non-flatness. So it's low, but it's impossible to prove it's perfectly flat.