• Question: Is space infinite and if so, how can the universe expand without the distance between objects becoming also infinite? Surely you cannot have an infinity inside an infinity?

    Asked by anon-181546 on 11 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      Wow, my mind is exploding inside my head! What a great question, I’ve always been fascinated by this sort of stuff too. I wish I could give you an answer, but I’m sure one of the other great scientists might have an idea!

    • Photo: Ashley Akbari

      Ashley Akbari answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      Great question lily, as a concept infinity is without any bounds and is larger than any number, but the way you have written it really makes me think about an ever expanding universe. Hopefully one of the other scientists can answer this, I would be really interested.

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      I am going to try to answer your question in two parts; 1) we do know that space is expanding, because all the galaxies around us has something called ‘red shift’, which is a feature of the Doppler effect. I don’t know, if space is expanding into something, or if it has a border expanding with it. Also, science is not sure if this is an infinite expansion, or whether it will eventually stop expanding or even stop then reverse. 2) One of the more bizarre rules to maths is that if infinity contains all numbers, it must also contain itself. So yes, you can have infinity inside infinity (I know, my mind hurts just thinking about it).

Comments

  • Photo: anon-181546

    anon-181546 commented on :

    If you can have an infinity inside of an infinity surely one is not truest infinite

  • Photo: Lauren

    Lauren commented on :

    The problem is that you can’t consider infinity a number, it’s a symbol that represents every number at once. If infinity + infinity = infinity is true (and mathematicians believe it to be true) then neither of those infinities are smaller than the resultant. If an infinite amount of space exists, then it has room for itself, and within that infinite space there is room for another one. These mind-bending problems with the term ‘infinite space’ is why some astrophysicists steer clear of the term. But, amazing question!!!

  • Photo: anon-182185

    anon-182185 commented on :

    If you could possibly have an infinity inside an infinity then there should be another and another until the very end because space is an interesting thing that no one would know truly towards this theory.