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apoeticturtle t1_ja7n728 wrote

Reply to comment by RubyPorto in Eli5 Help, please my brain hurts. If there is an expanding ring of light from the big bang, what is outside it? by ExtremeQuality1682

Can you point me to any information on how the idea of this "expanding into nothing" can be conceptualized?

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sofar55 t1_ja9fn4t wrote

Going back to the balloon analogy, the dots are moving away from each other. Without the vertical dimension, the "universe" of the balloon surface is getting bigger, but what is it expanding into? The space between dots is expanding, but where is the space coming from?

In this model, the dots dont understand elastic stretching. In the universe, it's believed that empty space is just expanding and pushing everything apart, but we don't know how.

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RubyPorto t1_ja9asum wrote

I'm not sure I can. Every physical analogy is going to be expanding into a medium.

It's also not really "expanding into nothing." The coordinate plane of space is itself expanding, full stop. It's not expanding into anything (or nothing).

It's a fact that you just have to decide you're ok with, without a relatable model to compare it with.

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apoeticturtle t1_jabgplj wrote

There are many things in my life that I do have to decide if I am OK with, but thankfully not this one. I cannot even imagine "nothing" and having less than nothing (that which lies beyond our Universe's edge) is as mind-boggling as it is speculative. All the energy in our Universe may be just a tiny fraction of all the energy everywhere/when. It seems more likely, to me, that our Universe is a tiny part of something bigger. If not, what a waste of energy and time/space.

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