If the universe is never ending then whats on the other side because it has to end at some point doesn't it?

Question

OK as i was lying down in my bed trying to go to bed i started to think about the Universe. Every one says that the universe is never ending right?

Well if its never ending then where does the new growing parts go? By that i mean that if you spill a glass of water on a counter top it keeps going untill it has to stop becasue its completely flat and there no more water to push it to keep going. And say that the water is the universe and that the dry countertop is something. What is that nothing?

The nothing cant be the universe because it has ended(the water), well whats all of the dry surface. If you add more water to the puddle it will just expand by taking over the nothing-ness. So when the universe ends or the part thats keeps growing what is the nothing-ness?

Im 14 and i cant get over this concept that i though of as i lying down. Can any one explain it or has an article about this type of promblem.(please correct me if i made any mistakes while typing

Answer 1

From what I understand, we don't know whether or not the universe is "never-ending" (ie. infinite in size). We cannot see that far yet (we can "only" see about 10-15 billion light years away I believe--an enormous distance). The problem with this, cosmologists say, is that if the universe were infinite and existed in the infinite past, the background temperatures would all be the same and deep space would not be dark, etc...because everything would have reached a common temperature (just like when leaving a Coke out, it will reach room temperature).

We know the universe is expanding and is not all at a constant temperature, amongst many other experiments and data. Therefore, we're pretty sure the universe used to be closer together (started from the Big Bang) and had a definite beginning (yet that exact state is undefined).

I should mention that current theories speculate that there may be 10 or 11 dimensions to our universe, some curled up so small we can't see them. Time is also not quite what we'd thought. If wormholes do exist, we may be able to warp space to such an extent that we could travel back in time (although this would be physically impossible, I believe).

If the universe started in the Big Bang and other theories are accurate, there may be a definite amount of matter (atoms, "stuff," whatever you want to call it). Therefore, I don't think you're correct in wondering where "new growing parts go" because all the stuff is already out there, just changing form and moving around.

The universe is an enormous and awesome thing to think about. It is very complicated and I'm not sure we'll ever understand it well. It may be presumptuous of us to think that we ever could. I, for one, admire the One that created it.

Answer 2

im also 14, and i have also had this thought. the universe doesnt end, just the matter. at the end is where there is no more matter, just nothingness.

Answer 3

Well, when you spill water on a table, you apply an unbalanced force on the water causing it to move. Here on earth the water will stop because of gravity and friction. In space though, the water would absolutely never stop moving unless somebody, or something stops it. Although it is possible that space stops at some point, we would never be able to see it.  

Traveling at the speed of light (how fast light moves) it would take  50,000 years. Keep in mind that there are many galaxy.

Answer 4

The universe doesn't have to end at some point, and doesn't, even though it is of finite size.  Anything on the "other side" would, by definition, not be part of the universe, and hence it would be unknowable.

Answer 5

Maybe it continues into another dimension separate from ours.

Answer 6

It's a funny thought but space is a lot like time.  Time started about 13,700 million years ago and the other end of it is NOW.  Time does not extend past NOW.  

Likewise, there is no space past THERE, but we do not quite know where THERE is.  But we know it is a very long way away and it is getting further all the time.  

I would not worry too much about not being able to get over it.    I don't think anyone else can and even Dr. Einstein said he could not.

Answer 7

So it depends on what you believe. Is the universe the water, or is the universe the counter top. If the glass is matter before the big bang, and it tipping over is the big bang itself, the the matter (the water) is spreading across space (the counter top). So if you went to where the matter stopped, there would be nothing but black space beyond, until planets and stars, and other space brick-a-brack, filled it up.

Of course that's just thinking about it in a 2D way. Really it don't seem to have an end. When telescopes are used to look at black patches, sometimes they don't see anything, suggesting that there's nothing there to look at, meaning it's endless and empty in that direction.

I think it's a matter of perspective. As humans, being the dominate species, no only on this planet but this whole existence as we know it. We find it hard to imagine that something is vastly, hugely, unimaginably bigger than we could ever conceive of. It not good for our psychology to dwell on it.

Answer 8

Let me put this in a way that I was told. Imagine an ant in the desert. All it sees is the same thing forever and ever and thats all it knows. Well it doesn't know that there are many things beyond the sand and heat. Well imagine we are the ant. This is all we know and we know of nothing else. What is considered beyond our universe is something our minds can't process.

There is no simple answer to this question. Since we do not possess the capabilities to explore a space that is beyond our senses at the moment, we cannot know what is beyond. While science is making great strides to explain the currently unexplainable, at the moment we cannot guess what is "outside". There are mysteries inside that we have not unraveled yet.

Not what you wanted to hear but there is no answer. Even if we did find out whats beyond us, then what it is beyond that? Its infinite. Try not to think about it.

Answer 9

dont get all hung up on size.

remember... "Space" pretty much MEANS the dimensions of length, width and height... so, if you say "Where is the end of space?"  you have to understand a LOT about just what SPACE is.

Guess what?  Its hard!  (not space.. understanding space)

space is probably pretty soft.

Einstein said that matter and energy were the same thing, by relating them to the speed of light... a speed measured by space/time.  Here is where it gets tricky.  If matter/energy are the same, then within the same equation, it implies that space/time is one, too.

not "one, two" .. that's a two-step dance.

so, "What's on the other side of space?" is pretty meaningless question.

Imagine painting your room... start at the door, paint all the way around and end back at the door.  Now, someone (from Yahoo: Answers) asks, "Paint the rest of the room"... hey, i painted the whole thing!  "Go back and paint before the beginning of the room and after the end"  What? are you crazy?  that doesnt MEAN anything!

Stephen Hawking described time this way.  Its at least 3D... the point where time begins is like the North Pole on Earth... all points lead South from the North Pole.  Eventually, time will make it to the South Pole, then what?

Probably, we will all be dead.... old age for me... mysterious poisonings for those people that keep asking "What was BEFORE the Big Bang?"   grrrr... "What is North of the North Pole?"

Answer 10

let me put it likes this, the universe has different strings or dimensions,each one has different physics lets say like streching never stops, so the universe is like a bubble with matter that keeps stretching into the nothing, but there are many universes so there is almost nothing of the nothing if you get what I mean, but outside the universe is exactly nothing, no physics no light no matter just nothing and unreachable,

Answer 11

Well the Universe doesn't end because the universe is still making millions of galaxies every year when they collied in each other so thats why the universe never ends!