How can the universe not have a center?

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If I understand the big bang theory correctly our whole universe was in a hot dense state. And then suddenly, rapid expansion happened where everything expanded outwards presumably from the singularity. We know for a fact that the universe is expaning and has been expanding since it began. So, theoretically if we go backwards in time things were closer together. The more further back we go, the more closer together things were. We should eventually reach a point where everything was one, or where everything was none (depending on how you look at it). This point should be the center of the universe since everything expanded from it. But after doing a bit of research I have discovered that there is no center to the universe. Please explain to me how this is possible.

Thank you!

In: Physics

50 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Take a sheet of paper. It’s easy to find the middle. Now take that same sheet and form it into a perfect sphere. Now where on the surface of that sheet of paper is the center? Everywhere…. and nowhere.

This is not to imply that the universe is, or is not a sphere, but simply to illustrate that it’s possible to have a shape where our idea of the middle doesn’t exactly make sense. At best, it shifts from the surface of the sheet of paper, to an imaginary point at the ‘core’. That was just shifting from 2d to 3d. We don’t even really know how many dimensions the universe has. Heck, we don’t even know the shape since we can’t step outside and look at it as a whole.

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