On 2004-11-30 11:24:50 -0500, jacob navia said:

BluMax wrote:

I have always wanted an answer that I can understand to the following question.

Simply asked, "What is our Universe expannning into"?

Please explain it assuming I am an *ordinary* 13 years old.

I finally found this question and its answer, in a FAQ called
"Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology":

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html

It is all "%^$@^$%@^" to me. :-(

Thanks in advance to "anyone/everyone" who can explain it to
me so that I understand.

BluMax

Hi BluMax
Objects in space, in our normal space, grow by taking
*more space*.

But for Space itself to do that, Space must take more of
Space, and in order to do that, Space must be larger than it is.

Hence, the notion of space expansion is self-contradictory
and can't exist. There can be no expansion of Space itself,
only of an object in Space.

Your intuition is 100% right BluMax, do not let the talk lead you
astray.

Furthermore, there is no such thing as the Universe. The
Universe denotes no special object; in fact, it denotes no
object of any kind. The fact that all things have a cause does
not mean that the Universe has a cause any more than the
fact that all men have a mother means that Humanity has a
mother. Hence the Universe does not have a cause. The
Universe does not have an age.

The universe is a short hand, comprehensive reference
to all things that exist.

And things being many, they have many ages . Hence, there is no
such thing as the age of the universe, unless we mean an
...average age. The Universe is just an inventory word, an
inventory meant to be exhaustive. And inventories have no
size. (I guess.) Hence, the universe has no size either.

References:

Apeiron, Vol 10 Nr 1, January 2003
"A Bang into Nowhere"
Constantin Antonopoulos
National Technical University of Athens

Wow, hmmm..... maybe now I might be *Starting" to understand.

So, if I understand correctly, the volume (so to speak) of space is
already there
and the Universe is merely expanding into it.

Right?

Do I also extrapulate from your answer then, that the volume of Space
would be endless (to infinity) ?

BluMax