Saturday, June 18, 2011

Finite or Infinite?

Today was the first full day since I returned to my parents house and my mother left. Surprisingly my dad was civil and pretty much left me to my own devises, and if he needed me to do something he didn't demand it to be done. So I figured I wouldn't make a fuss about it and thus I weeded the vegetable garden, watered the flowers, took Gaia for a walk, fed her, and other miscellaneous tasks her asked me to do, I just hope he can keep it up. While weeding, I think I burned my feet, because when I walk, the soles of my feet feel weird, so I will wear shoes when working in the garden next time, especially if it breaks one hundred-ish again.

Earlier today, I was watching a show with dad and Gaia featuring Morgan Freeman, called Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. It is basically a show about theoretical physics, this particular episode I was watching was particularly interesting to me because it explored the possibility of there being an edge to the universe and if there was something beyond it. A few months ago, I had asked my dad if there was an edge to the universe, if there was a point where the known universe stopped and he said that the universe is infinite. That conversation left me unconvinced, because I have a hard time believing that it is infinite, I think there is always something larger.

In the episode, three or four scientists put forth theories trying to prove that the universe is actually finite. One theorized that the edge is like a game of asteroids, where if you leave the screen to the left, you will end up on the right and go through a continuous loop, the same for up and down. Another scientist put forth the theory that the universe is shaped like a dodecagon (a twelve sided shape), or affectionately called the soccer ball shape. Another scientist discovered that some galaxies are traveling towards a common spot that could not be determined. After that was published, another scientist theorized that that spot is where another universe is touching ours and is pulling those galaxies towards it. Which lead to the statement of every comic book super hero fanatics wet dream, a multiverse, where there are actually more than one universe out there. At this point, Gaia began to start bothering me to go out, so I missed the last ten or so minutes of the show.

Next weeks episode is asking wether time exists or if it is a human invention to explain the universe around us.

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