Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
I don't necessarily believe that our universe is infinite, but how can you say it isn't?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lucifer_sam
As a logical argument, this is perfectly acceptable. Effectively, it is infinite.
There is no possible way for us to measure the known size of the universe, or even the rate of expansion, but assuming the universe is indeed expanding...
...it's mathematically fallible. Consider:
(Infinity) + 1 = (Infinity)
(Infinity) * 2 = (Infinity)
or even
(Infinity) * (Infinity) = (Infinity)
If the universe is indeed expanding, it follows there MUST be some change in its size from state 1 to state 2. However, since
(Infinity) - (Infinity) = 0
it follows that an infinitely large universe would be a static one.
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You're confusing a mathematical abstraction with physical reality. Math isn't an observational science. It's a purely artificial invention with arbitrary rules that's used to *model* the real world. The actual world isn't compelled to conform to this model. Moreover, arithmetic operations like addition are only defined for numbers. Since 'infinity' isn't a number, you can't add anything to it. Therefore, your proof fails even as a model. However, I agree with your conclusion that the universe is finite because I don't believe in actual infinities. But it's an arbitrary choice.