If we first assume the universe started with a Big Bang, then there should have been a shock-wave extending out from the center. Science tells us that the shock-wave could not move faster than the speed of light. Did it? — Don Wade
If it was space before the big bang, and space after the big bang - then what changed? Plus, light still only travels at a defined velocity in space. Then did light travel faster before the big bang? — Don Wade
You're not very good at this. — James Riley
During the inflationary epoch, new space was added between all the things in the universe at a rate that made them much farther away from each other in much less time than it would take light to travel that same distance. — Pfhorrest
is there a distinction with a relevant difference? — James Riley
Aren't those two things moving apart faster than the speed of light, if only by the addition of space? — James Riley
Unfortunately true. :sweat:Such threads serve as bad examples of philosophical thinking, and worse examples of physics.
But the thread will run for a page or two as folk compare their misinterpretations. — Banno
:100: :clap:Nothing can move through space faster than light, but new space being created does not count as things moving through space. During the inflationary epoch, new space was added between all the things in the universe at a rate that made them much farther away from each other in much less time than it would take light to travel that same distance. But nothing actually moved through that space faster than light.
If eternal inflation is true, then that inflationary epoch is the normal state of the universe, which is consequently MUCH much bigger and older than the part of it we’re familiar with. The universe as we know it is just a temporary little blip in that enormously larger universe, a tiny part that very briefly slowed down at random, dumping some of that enormous inflationary energy into all the other fields that the universe as we know it is made of. And over time, this part of the greater universe is gradually speeding back up and dissolving back into the rest of it, which has still been expanding at breakneck speed this whole while. — Pfhorrest
was observed as we are doing in this discussion, conceptually, then that relative position would see two objects moving away from each other faster than the speed of light? — James Riley
Another question: If everything is flying away from everything else (or, if space is growing between), isn't the relative experience of any one of those things that of stasis? What direction could one be going from anything without going toward something? To have space grow between, wouldn't it have to be still? and everything was flying away (as in space was growing between). Now this is going to probably sound stupid, but if, in your example of looking into space, aren't we seeing the same thing if we run around to the other side of the planet and look in that different direction into space? Or from any point on Earth into space? I guess what I getting at here is this: can we or are with between two different things with space growing between us and them in opposite directions? If there are no directions, wouldn't that make us the center of the universe? — James Riley
space is added between them — James Riley
Space isn't added between galaxies. All of space is expanding so the fabric of space between galaxies is stretching. — T Clark
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