I'm surprised no one posted about the curvature of space and how gravity warps space and distorts time. However, gravity makes itself known by how it affects mass. Without objects to attract, there would be no frame of reference. No one could say that gravity does anything without something being there first.
If there were no planets to hold moons in orbit and no suns or black holes to warp the surrounding "empty space", then any gravity that radiated out into that space would have zero effect; at least it wouldn't have anything you could see being affected.
So, gravity in the absence of any matter in empty space isn't warping space, especially if space is nothing. Now, maybe if space were something, like the old aether theory, then I can see how it would contract or expand when an outside force is applied.
If space is expanding, it is inside something. Like the rubber balloon explanation of cosmic expansion, where galaxies are dots on the surface of a balloon that is expanding and getting larger. That 2-D explanation is lacking because there is no center to radiate out of, no beginning point of the big bang.
So if space is static and isn't warping or expanding, then everything in space is receding by getting more compact and smaller. This is more like a big implosion, not a big bang.
Maybe this empty space isn't empty but more like a fluid and under tremendous pressure, pushing against matter to compact it into a smaller size. This explanation of gravity as being something like water pressure wouldn't be expansion or contraction of empty space either. Fits with the universe inside a black hole theory pretty well, too. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't explain how light bends around a massive source of gravity, at least not in any way I could understand.
It is all about point of view, like the difference between linear time and a four-dimensional landscape version of time. One is the hands of a clock moving forward with the usual cause and effect, while the other is traveling from point A to point B in the fourth dimension.
If there were no planets to hold moons in orbit and no suns or black holes to warp the surrounding "empty space", then any gravity that radiated out into that space would have zero effect; at least it wouldn't have anything you could see being affected.
So, gravity in the absence of any matter in empty space isn't warping space, especially if space is nothing. Now, maybe if space were something, like the old aether theory, then I can see how it would contract or expand when an outside force is applied.
(06-17-2025, 07:21 AM)Ninurta Wrote: Makes sense.
How could the universe possibly expand? What exactly would it expand into?
Beyond the universe is nothingness. Nothingness is, well, nothingness. No mass. No time. No "space", which is made up of length, width, and height. Nothing. So how could anything expand into that? There is literally "nothing" to expand into. No structure to hold what is expanding.
If space is expanding, it is inside something. Like the rubber balloon explanation of cosmic expansion, where galaxies are dots on the surface of a balloon that is expanding and getting larger. That 2-D explanation is lacking because there is no center to radiate out of, no beginning point of the big bang.
So if space is static and isn't warping or expanding, then everything in space is receding by getting more compact and smaller. This is more like a big implosion, not a big bang.
Maybe this empty space isn't empty but more like a fluid and under tremendous pressure, pushing against matter to compact it into a smaller size. This explanation of gravity as being something like water pressure wouldn't be expansion or contraction of empty space either. Fits with the universe inside a black hole theory pretty well, too. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't explain how light bends around a massive source of gravity, at least not in any way I could understand.
It is all about point of view, like the difference between linear time and a four-dimensional landscape version of time. One is the hands of a clock moving forward with the usual cause and effect, while the other is traveling from point A to point B in the fourth dimension.
A trail goes two ways and looks different in each direction - There is no such thing as a timid woodland creature - Whatever does not kill you leaves you a survivor - Jesus is NOT a bad word - MSB