Sorry if this is so vague, but I was thinking about space and my brain can’t comprehend how the universe is infinite. To my understanding the universe “model” is that it’s kind of oval shaped and we come back right where we started. But wouldn’t that make the universe finite because there has to be something beyond that? Maybe I’m missing something and that’s why I’m confused.
In: Physics
We don’t know if the universe is infinite or not. We do know that it is mind bogglingly big.
We don’t know wether or not it is infinite because we do not know what shape it is. If it is saddle shaped then it is infinite, if it is spherical then it is finite.
It is not intuitive to think of the universe being finite because that would mean there is a boundary and if there is a boundary then our intuition says there must be something on the other side. This is why it is a very difficult question to answer. Our intuition is not sufficient to understand it. The people that have the best understanding of it do so through math.
To approach an understanding try to think of the universe as having two physical dimensions instead of three. If you imagine the universe to be the surface of a balloon you might see how it can be both unbounded and yet finite.
A person in this two dimensional universe would only be able to conceive of a third dimension through math.
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