JavaScript is required to use Bungie.net

Group Avatar

Sapphire

"New website! sapphirecommunity.com"

Request Join
  • Mission Statement

    sapphirecommunity.com Sapphire is one of the longest-living and most famous communities on Bungie, with a history spanning over six years (this is not our first forum!), millions of posts, and so many in-jokes we had to create our own history archive to help us remember them all. Then we got tired of Bungie mistreating private groups and made our own website. Come and see what has made Sapphire the choice hangout for thousands of people since 2009 at sapphirecommunity.com

  • Membership

    1961 Members
    Total number of users that have joined this group
    14 Years as a Group
    Total number of years this group has been active
  • Admins

  • Tagged

originally posted in:Sapphire
10/31/2013 1:51:08 AM
44

Do you believe in an infinite universe?

Yes

67

No

37

­

Posting in language:

 

Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • If it's supposedly expanding according to scientists backed up with evidence...how can it be infinite. This is what I can't get my head around, so I'm going to have to say no.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Wait, do you mean: A. This universe extends indefinitely B. There are an infinite number of finite universes

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

    1 Reply
    • This is well beyond me, so I'll just post something a guy who knows what he's talking about says: [quote]It's not an assumption of math but one of philosophical input into our science. We choose to believe that physics doesn't change with location in the universe because to assume otherwise is unnecessary complication. We haven't seen any evidence that the laws of physics vary, and we philosophically choose to keep the scientific theory that takes the fewest number of unnecessary ideas. So working from the idea that physics itself doesn't change, let us assume that the universe could have a "boundary" in any meaningful sense of the term. You've suggested a few. One boundary idea means that space goes on and on and on, but it's empty. So we would have to ask ourselves... why is it empty? What physical process created matter and energy here but not there? Again this runs into our "unnecessary idea" problem. The assumption brings more problems than it solves (it doesn't really solve anything in fact, just says that there's a finite amount of matter/energy in the universe). Another boundary idea may be that there's a "hard" edge to the universe. Not just hard like diamond, but like... space doesn't exist past some point. But that too really is complicated. What if we shine a light on that edge? what happens to it? What if we throw rocks at it? Again, the laws of physics would have to change over location to determine why you couldn't cross that wall. So we don't think this boundary exists either. I can't think of any other boundary cases, but hopefully I've at least demonstrated why physics being universal implies a universe without boundaries. So next we ask ourselves, okay, no boundaries, what "shape" can the universe have. This has a lot of answers actually. But I'll boil the discussion down to the highlights. The error bars on our measurement haven't yet excluded a positive curvature. The universe could be very slightly positively curved, but the probability of this case is rather quite small. In this case the universe would curve over very long distances (like 200 some observable universes) until it came back to where it started. No edge, see? But let's take the data for what it seems to be pointing to. Flat curvature. There are several "shapes" of flat curvature that don't have boundaries. Some are things like the 3-Torus. A 2-D example would be a pacman or asteroids screen. Pass through one edge, appear on the other side, but the motion is all straight lines and normal geometry. Another example is a tesselation, suppose the universe had some shape that tiles its edges together, like a pentagonal dodecahedron. This universe is flat in its interior but again, the edges "wrap" back around, but in a more complicated pattern than the 3-Torus. So finally we get to the simplest geometry that fits the flat data, and that's the flat Euclidean plane without boundaries. And so what we mean here, is an infinite amount of matter spread over an infinite volume of space. Go to the edge of our observable universe and you'll find another observable universe that looks very similar to our own. and so on ad infinitum. Galaxy clusters and filaments filled with stars and planets. Forever and ever in every direction. [/quote]

      Posting in language:

       

      Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

    • Is there a reason why this was globally muted?

      Posting in language:

       

      Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

      1 Reply
      • Edited by CND AAA Beef: 11/2/2013 5:28:13 PM
        Is there a 1080p version of that pic? Would make a sick wallpaper. OT: The space the universe exists in is infinite, but there is a finite amount of matter in it. At least, that's my understanding.

        Posting in language:

         

        Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

      • Enjoy your global mute.

        Posting in language:

         

        Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

        3 Replies
        • I believe that Le Dustin is retarded.

          Posting in language:

           

          Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          2 Replies
          • this thread devolved into a "The earth is round VS The earth is flat debate." #circlejerk

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Infinite universe, no. Infinite multiverse sure

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • What the shit is it expanding into!? Somebody teach me to astrophysics!

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • 0
            I was originally informed a couple years ago that the universe would gradually cease its expansion, but Saul Perlmutter and the like provided proof that the universe is actually accelerating in growth. The definition of the word makes me wanna vote no, but purely on scale alone, I want to vote yes. tsk tsk

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • 0
            I was under the impression it was all theories on any side of this topic.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • For ones the universe is not infinite, it is expanding. Will it expand infinitely? Likely not.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Yes. Well maybe. Depends if the universe just keeps on expanding or eventually stops just because it can't keep expanding any more.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • My gut says no but I'll let Winy field this one

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Welp, way I see it, you can't have an edge. If there is one, what happens when matter reaches it? I mean, matter can't just be erased, but it couldn't exist in a place that doesn't exist, correct?

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Edited by Pendulate: 10/31/2013 3:20:44 AM
            Not in any sense of the word.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Edited by KilljoyDetective: 10/31/2013 3:18:59 AM
            I want to say no, because Infinity isn't a concept we with both our limited intellect and lifetimes can understand.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • It's not infinite.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Technically it's a yes and no answer, but mainly a yes. Why? Because the universe is always expanding. So while there's technically "boundaries", those "boundaries" are always expanding. We'll never be able to explore the entire universe, therefore, it is basically infinite.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Edited by Banned n3rd: 10/31/2013 3:15:13 AM
            Space wise or time wise?

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • Get this. We may not know if the universe is infinite or not but we do know that that there are a finite number of possible quantum states that describe the volume that your body occupies(about 10^(10^70). What does this mean? Well, in an infinite universe if you traveled far enough you may eventually run into exact doppelgangers of yourself. Just think about the implications of that.

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

          • define infinite you giant fag

            Posting in language:

             

            Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

            2 Replies
            • I believe in an ever-expanding universe, but I'm not sure about infinite based off of modern astrophysics.

              Posting in language:

               

              Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

            • Infinite in time, space, or both?

              Posting in language:

               

              Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

            • 0
              Hard to tell, it could be infinite.

              Posting in language:

               

              Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

            You are not allowed to view this content.
            ;
            preload icon
            preload icon
            preload icon