Is the universe rotating? How would we know - afterall there is nothing that would serve as a reference point?

Question

to show the rotation.

Answer 1

REALLY good question!  I had not thought of it before.  btw, to the first two answers, I reply "Huh?" and "What?", not necessarily in that order.  Those of us what accept the BB theory, I guess, have sort of assumed that the "fabric of space" is moving "straight out" from some point, the idea being (from Newton's laws) that without something to "turn" it, it will expand straight out...but that's Newtonian thinking, and probably isn't a good way to look at this problem.

We wouldn't know, I guess.  And, if it's the universe that's rotating, it wouldn't matter would it?  If you're eating dinner on a train, it doesn't matter if the train is moving or stationary, you still eat the entree first, then dessert.

Answer 2

You are absolutely right.  See "Mach's Principle" in Wikipedia.

Answer 3

I don't know about rotation but...

It is thought that universe is MOVING because...

Time is the fourth dimension and we are making a journey in this fourth dimension in forward direction that is in the direction of Cause to Effect OR from Birth to Death. We cannot go from Death to Birth.

This journey in the fourth dimension is thought to be made by our universe which makes us experience our time as a journey from events in a sequential direction.

Answer 4

no just its part like our solar system, our planet.

Pls choose it.

Answer 5

Actually, rotation would produce a 'preferred direction' in space: that of the axis of rotation. This type of effect has been searched for, but never found.

Answer 6

You have correctly answered your own question.  The foundation of Einstein's relativity is that there is no particular reference point or direction in the universe - everything is measured relative to some frame of reference.  In astronomy, we specify a star's position by right ascension and declination, which is a coordinate system based on the orientation of the earth's spin axis.  Declination is the angular distance perpendicular to the plane of the earth's equator.  Right ascension is measured in the plane of the earths equator with respect to a reference star in the constellation Aries.

If you moved to another star, then right ascension and declination would make no sense.

Answer 7

Science is all just a bunch of thories none of them are proparly correct. Gravity might not be true its just want one man thought and now we beleive in it because we think its correct.Once they though the world was flat.That was the norm.We think were spinning .We might not be

Answer 8

Rotation requires an axis.  As the Universe has no center, there is no axis of rotation.  Ergo, the Universe is not rotating.

Answer 9

It is not entirely correct that we need something not spinning with us to know that we are spinning.  It may seem that, if the Earth were the only object in the universe, and it were spinning, we would never be able to tell, because nothing would be still for us to compare the motion.

However, spinning is a motion relative to that very same object that is spinning, not to other objects!  That is to say that, in the case of spin, as opposed to straight motion, the reference point is INSIDE the spinning object.  Consider satellites in geosynchronous orbits.  If Earth and our geosynchronous satellites were the only objects in existence, we could tell, (given that we understood physics the same way that we do now) that we were spinning, because otherwise, the satellite would fall to the Earth.  The centripetal force of something on the outside of the spin being pulled in (or seeming to be pushed out) is evidence of spin without outside reference.