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Old 01-26-2011, 09:53 PM   #825
troutman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photon View Post

The balloon thing isn't really a theory, it's just an analogy to try and take something very complex and render it at a level we can grasp visually. Remember in the balloon illustration, the surface of the balloon represents all dimensions of space. And in reality the shape isn't a sphere like the balloon, but a "3-manifold", something analogous to a sphere in more dimensions.
I read another analogy - imagine a blueberry muffin cooking in the oven. The galaxies are the blueberries. As the muffin expands, the blueberries all move away from each other.
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