What exactly are parallel universes?

Question

are they inside our universe or are they outside of our universe?

if they are outside of our universe, how many are there? if you say there is an infinite amount, that does not really make sense to me because how can there be an infinite amount of finite things?

Answer 1

in an infinite space there can by definition be an infinite amount of finite sized items.

That's the definition of infinity.

Parallel universes are like that. It's the idea that this universe is not the only one, that others exist outside of it.

Whether (and how) those can be reached is another question entirely, and opinions on that are probably as varried as the people holding them.

And to confuse you even more: it is possible to have an infinite number of infinitely large universes existing next to each other.

Infinity too exists in gradations, and an infinite number of Aleph1 infinities will fit inside an Aleph2 infinity.

Answer 2

There's absolutely no evidence one way or the other right now for the existence of parallel universes.  Whether they exist is entirely a matter of what you choose to believe in.

The idea of paralel universes seems to have sprung up in an attempt to explain what is known as the anthropic principle.  Astronomers and philosophers have noticed that a number of the physical properties of the universe are set at precisely the levels that will allow a long- lived universe, and man, to exist.

It would have taken only a tiny change in strength of the gravitational attraction, for instance, to make the universe collapse on itself in a short time after the big bang. If the intensity of the strong nuclear force were ever so slightly weaker than it is, helium atoms could not form and there would be no periodic table of elements.

And there's no particular reason to think these and other physical properties should be set at the levels they are. As far as we could tell, the levels could be set to anything.

What is the likelihood of all these properties coming out with exactly the settings we actually find? You could think of the chances of one person winning the Powerball lottery billions and billions of times in a row, but the actual probability is far, far tinier than this. It's been calculated at a number like 1 followed by 229 zeros. (For that matter, why do these gravitation, nuclear and other forces exist at all in our universe?)

As scientists scramble to find an explanation that would avoid having to admit a possibility of the existence of God, some have latched onto the notion of an infinite number of universes. In this view, there is an unlimited number of universes, in which all possible physical properties find expression in one universe or another. By the sheerest of luck, we happen to be in the one that came out just right because, after all, we could hardly exist in any of the others.

In my view, the idea of parallel universes comes a cropper because it violates the basic philosophical principle known as Occam's Razor.  When confronted with two possible explanations, choose the one that is the simplest, requiring the fewest assumptions.  (When you see two damaged cars stopped in the middle of an intersection, and you have to choose between a collision and an attack by space aliens, choose the former.)

To believe in an infinite number of universes, each with different properties, requires you to assume that all of this myriad of universes came spontaneously into being.  I always wonder why believers in this parallel universe idea don't apply Occam's Razor and simply accept the existence of our universe as evidence for the provisional hypothesis of the existence of God.

Answer 3

It's like you looking on a mirror. You can see your self but you can't touch it, as if it is existing in another dimension.

Parallel, always so close, or far, but can't reach each other.

Answer 4

No they are intersecting, a bit like spaghetti junction in Birmingham, but there is a question in your question, how can there be an infinite amount of finite things? Parallel question?

Answer 5

  They don't exist but if they did apparently they are universes that are phase shifted from ours.

  It would have to be a phase shift since anything connected to this universe would be part of it.

Answer 6

according to M theory they float in 11 dimensions all around our universe and there could be infinite number of them.

Answer 7

yeah

Answer 8

its science fiction

and the key word is "fiction"

Answer 9

Do you know what parell lines are well imagine the lines being worlds and there you get parallel universes

Answer 10

Think of a bunch of marbles, and in each marble is a universe (I know, very MIB, but hold on). There are infinite marbles (universes) with infinite possibilities. Think of all the probabilities in every scenario in life, and know that each one is possible in some way or another - that is (in a deduced form) what the theory of parallel universes is.