Expanding Universe?

If the universe is expanding.. what is it expanding into?

i can think of two things one like a ripple or explosion it will continue to do so and finaly becme nothing or it will do so untill its limit is reached and stop like filling a balloon with a certain amount of air slowly

short but interesting question i have not done much research on the topic has anyone here if so please bear the fruits of your labour

Well i was reading about the origin of the universe.. as average teenagers do.. and uh.. okay so the universe is expanding.. and a massive explosion happened and it started.. now i just dont get where its going.. like another big universe.. but then what is that inside.. and then you keep asking thsi question.... its like who made that.. and then who made that and then who made god and who made the whatever that made god.. is it just one of those questions.. the we dont know.. we are just going to go around in circles.. kinda questions..?

Theoretically speaking, the universe is most likely not expanding. This is a misconception. The universe is more likely already infinitely huge, but the space within the universe is stretching apart. So, in a sense the universe is expanding inside of itself.

We do not know whether the universe is outwardly expanding or not. We simply know that the relative distance of masses expands over time. This is a hard concept to grasp because space itself is stretching and not actual measurable distances.

At some point, it has been theorized that masses will begin to break apart on a subatomic level due to this stretching.

See wyote.. that makes much more sense.. be it true or not.. it just is easier to understand... If we say the universe is like a room.. then all that is in it is what is actually expanding.. but the universe is not.. i mean say the contents of the room arent actually part of the room.. if this makes any sense.... they are part of the room but... okay.. the contents of the room and the walls arent the same thing...

?

So what is space? is space and the universe the same thing?

Space is the absence of matter. The universe is everything that is.

All this stuff is theoretical. Physics tells us how things relate and interact, but we are still exploring these concepts, so many things are subject to change.

Oh yea and if you try to think of the universe as a room, this automatically implies that there is an outside to this room. We don't know what the edge of the universe is like at all. All we know is what we can see, and we can't see the edge... assuming there is such a thing.

There are all sorts of interesting theories out there, I recommend reading as much as you can about them. Fascinating stuff. If you can dig into some of the math too it makes everything feel much more tangible. I've barely scratched the surface myself. The Planck Constant is a good starting point.

I was thinking before .. when i was brushing my teeth.. that what if there is more than one universe expanding.. or whatevr is expanding into space.. well strecthing out into the nothingness and taking it up... at the same time.. what if what if.. then you say.. then what if.. meh so what....but either way it interests me... i guess when you think of it as a room it does imply that there is an outside.. but i think what i was getting at was that there would be a limit.. but then whats the limit made of.. the walls if we were to call them that.. then its like matter on the edges..

Space doesn't exist. What we call space is just an area of very little matter.

Point of interest, in theory, the membrane theory which supersedes the string theory outside our universe is a multiverse basically many universes floating around and when they smack into each other that creates another universe (big bang).

The book I mentioned in my hello post is a good starting point. Do not start with String theory, super symmetry or branes. The romanticism of it is alluring, but the reality of it is that if you say we have enough dimensions, you can work the math into it rather than vise versa.

Lee Smolin - 3 Roads to Quantum Gravity. This book discusses String Theory (M-Theory too),Quantum Loops and Causality.

Also, don't' state anything as fact in physics, because it'll usually make you look ignorant. All we know is what we can't prove. Newton stated that gravity was instantaneous and occured in 3 dimensions, we know at least one of those is not correct.

Godel gave us the liar's paradox in mathematical form for the sake of logic (math + philosophy), and made one of the greatest mathematical genii of all time look like an idiot (Witgenstein) with one sentence: "This statement is unprovable"

As far as relating that to your thoughts on the universe as a whole, look at what we know of the inner workings of something larger. If we are still expanding outward, which in theory will eventually stretch us so thin we literally tear apart, why are so many new star clusters forming in remote regions both outwards and what we consider inwards?

If string theory were true, it would prove that some function of time existed, and that wormholes existed. If it were truly possible to exploit these, how would we ever have a starting point for reference as to where/when it might take you? Thus we are brought back to the beginning, what is the concept of time where strings are concerned and why does it seem to exist at a constant within the confines of Planck (the confines being larger than atoms and smaller than black holes, not the reverse).

Perhaps it is best if you read something general, and then concentrate on one aspect of it that interests you in order to begin to delve into what would last you many lifetimes to fully educate yourself on.

Sidenote to chrisd: if space does not exist at all, what is in between everything? Smaller matter? What kind of smaller matter? would there not be space between Bosons and Fermions?