I'm sorry you have difficulty understanding this. When discussing complex predictions on what could be what we are observing is nearly impossible. You know, obviously more than I know, but we both have a different set of knowledge. Me not knowing the terminology that you know, has definitely hindered what I am attempting to describe.
So, if I were to use a bubble instead of a sphere, could you picture what I described?
By, "central point", I was referring to gravitational center. Where there is equilibrium. Like the gravitational center of the Earth Moon system is located somewhere within the Earth, but on the side where the Moon is located.
Hi CryptoCraig, Thanks for your reply.
I think the main difficulty is referencing
sphere. Are you talking about out "Universe" being bounded by a sphere, or, if you like being akin to a bubble with the "Universe" inside?
Please quickly check Cosmology -
Universe and universes - some conformity please.
This will help us both if you understand what I mean.
The first difficulty I have, if you mean a "Universe" bounded by a sphere, is
what is outside your sphere - if the "Universe" is "all there is"? Personally I do not believe that there is any such boundary. If we could see it from "one dimension up" I think it would look like the equivalent of a Moebius Strip, or Klein Bottle. OK, if we just forget any actual boundary and think of the matter in the U. being confined to a ball like shape, is there any reason why you think the matter would be mostly around the surface? Are you thinking of expansion leaving a "hole" in the middle?
If so, it is not necessary. Think of the flatlander. He is confined to the surface of the sphere (technically the surface
is the sphere - there is no interior. That is the difference between a sphere (geometrical shape) and a bubble or ball (real world).
A flatlander would not understand a sphere expanding, which requires 3 space dimensions. He experiences expansion as the distance between points on the surface getting larger.
Mathematically, we would call a sphere as a two dimensional surface embedded in a third dimension. Not easy to understand, I appreciate.
You can see we have a problem here. I am using the analogy of a flatlander living
on or
in the surface. There is no
above the surface or
inside the sphere in his case.
If I understand you correctly, I would say that there is no need to try to give shape to the U. We don't understand anything here really. In this picture, I would just see matter existing in space, and mostly moving apart from other matter. There is an exception at small distances in that gravity overcomes expansion. Nearby galaxies, like Andromeda, are moving closer together because gravity overcomes the force causing expansion.
Don't forget that gravity falls off very quickly as distance increases. Although it does reach a long way, it weakens very rapidly, so I don't see this
The matter within the sphere could be gravitationally pulled toward the edge, and "flung" out beyond the edge.
happening at all. There is no sharp edge - just a gradual thinning - and gravity would still pull towards the centre - not towards any "edge". And the expansion is not leaving a "hole" in the middle. Everything (galaxies) is moving away from everything else (except the few very close to us). The moving apart is also weakening the gravity.
Does this help at all? Please come back and discuss
Cat