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Old 04-30-2009, 02:08 PM   #38
Cowperson
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photon View Post
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm

Here's a good link on the basics of cosmology.

Wiki also has decent info I find.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
From Wiki . . . . .

The Universe is defined as everything that physicallyexists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them.

However, the term universe may be used in slightly different contextual senses, denoting such concepts as the cosmos, the world or Nature.

Current interpretations of astronomical observations indicate that the age of the universe is 13.73 (± 0.12) billion years,[1] and that the diameter of the observable Universe is at least 93 billion light years, or 8.80 × 1026metres.[2]

To me, the first and second paragraphs contradict the third . . . . . or, at the very least, go beyond the definition of the third.

In the first and second paragraphs, the "universe" is a concept, which could include the argument I've made, that there could be something beyond a boundary.

The third paragraph seems to make Photon's argument. That there are defined limits, both observed and not observed, to the universe, the universe originating from the single Big Bang we know about. A starting point and a point where it ends, although still expanding.

The first two paragraphs do leave open the theoretical question of something beyond the results of the Big Bang we know and love.

I think.

Cowperson
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