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Old July 15th 05, 11:57 AM
Joseph Lazio
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"BC" == Bob Cain writes:

BC Joseph Lazio wrote:

This statement fails to distinguish between the observable
Universe, which did indeed once fit inside a space smaller than the
head of a pin, and the entire Universe, which may very well be
infinite in extent.


BC How long would it take such a universe to become infinite?

The Universe didn't "become" infinite in spatial extent (if in fact it
is).

The problem here is that many people (based in part on poor
descriptions from my learned colleagues) think that the initial
singularity in the Big Bang model was a point in space. It wasn't.
It was a point in time. If you extrapolate backward in time, we reach
a point at which our understanding breaks down, because the
temperature and density of the Universe become infinite.

In contrast, the spatial extent of the Universe could be infinite. If
so, it always has been infinite.

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