I just ate enough thai food for 3 people so I'm pretty sure I am at least
I'm definitely expanding. Beer and Cheezits. Probably a minor gravitational anomaly at this point, but still.
If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#12Between two charged particles (electric or maybe neutral particles by gravity) is some force. Moving them away will require energy.
So e.g. you put two charged particles in this expanding space, the ongoing expansion will cause some energy which can be harvested? Can we build our "Zero point modul" which generates energy out of "nothing".
We dont even need particles for this effect since this is based on virtuell particles which ghostly appear and disappear (the Casimir effect)? Or maybe a proper medium would suit better (more particles more energy from expansion) e.g. the densest object like a black hole in this expanding space machine?
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#13The simple answer is "No."
The more complicated answer is that empty space is expanding, but matter is not. Gravity, and matter subjected to the various forces, holds together even as empty space expands around it.
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#14The simple answer is "No." The more complicated answer is that empty space is expanding, but matter is not. Gravity, and matter subjected to the various forces, holds together even as empty space expands around it.
It's more complicated than that, if you want to read all the way to the end of the article.
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#15All organisms expand or grow. The universe is an organism. The earth is an organism. And it is growing. Etc.
The universe is not an organism in any accepted sense. It doesn't acquire energy from its environment, use that to reduce local entropy, and expel waste products. It is energy, it is expanding, and its entropy is reducing exactly in accord with thermodynamics.
If the universe is an organism, then so is my cup of tea!
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#16All organisms expand or grow. The universe is an organism. The earth is an organism. And it is growing. Etc.
The universe is not an organism in any accepted sense. It doesn't acquire energy from its environment, use that to reduce local entropy, and expel waste products. It is energy, it is expanding, and its entropy is reducing exactly in accord with thermodynamics. If the universe is an organism, then so is my cup of tea!
Bacteria living in your body would make the same claims about you.
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#17Veritasium recently did a video on this https://www.veritasium.com/videos/2020/10/23/do-you-expand-w...
TL;DR: No, we are not expanding. The phrase "expanding universe" is most attributed to the empiric evidence of red shift of the photons we see from outer space. But the red shift does not mean that the space fabric itself is expanding, it only means that photons and their frequencies are not simple local phenomena, they depend on relative aspects of space and observers. The frequency of a photon is not best seen as just the photon, it is more accurately described as source/photon/observer system.
The distant galaxies that are sending photons are indeed moving away relative to us as observers. But the atoms in the earth, and inside your body do not expand in the same way, and the space fabric/ether itself, "the grid of coordinates" that the earth sits in does not expand.
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#18The wild thing to me, assuming I understand it correctly, is that the expansion speed can exceed the speed of light.
If you choose your relative objects that you compare carefully, even much simpler systems can be seen as expanding much quicker than the speed of light, relative to some specific theoretical observer.
But nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (no matter or energy or information), relative to the source point.
Re: If the universe is expanding, are we expanding too?
#19All organisms expand or grow. The universe is an organism. The earth is an organism. And it is growing. Etc.
You are using the word "organism" in a very poetic metaphorical way. (And even then not a widely accepted one, but it being poetic, no one can really dispute it.) But the article talks about a very specific question in established physics which has already established terms and theories. It explains a valid question within that specific framework. In that framework talking about space as organism does not make a lot of sense, it doesn't add any new useful information.