Basically the title – I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering, but I still can’t answer this question posed by my girlfriend. An infinitely expanding universe implies that there’s a “container” the universe is expanding into, kind of like how you can pour a pancake into a pan & it’ll expand to the limits of the pan. But then that also implies that said container existed before the universe / big bang, which is…wild. Anyway, please ELI5!
In: Physics
Measuring the universe will blow your mind. The easiest ELi5 is we don’t know.
We know that it is expanding, but we have no idea on the actual size or what “space” its trying to occupy. The best measurements we have actually suggest the universe is flat. But it’s flat in the way of trying to measure the curvature of the earth and literally not having enough measurable space to actually see the curve take place. Think about those guys that try to measure by putting 9 ft high holes a certain amount of distance away to see the light, there is enough literal space on earth to have the holes far enough apart to actually measure the curve. With space it measures as just ‘flat’, we literally cannot see 2 points far enough away from each other to measure any sort of curve. So we literally cannot see far enough to know whats beyond the “space” the universe occupies.
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