doesn't quite suit forum, but...

[dr_st]

Let us discuss the fact that the number of electrons in the universe known to us is less than 10^100.

[Fredrik]

Which is ten times more than 10^99

[danarchist]

Isn't that 1 google? (10^100 I mean)

[Fredrik]

GLAH.

GOOGLE = SEARCH ENGINE

GOOGOL = 10^100

GOOGLE != GOOGOL

GOOGLE != 10^100

[Zaldron]

GOOGOLPLEX's (sp?) one useless number.

[IMJack]

Finite universe. So you'll never get permantently lost in your exploration of space. :P

Now, would the universe wrap around, or be a fishbowl with a clearly defined edge?

[Zaldron]

It wraps around.

[Lüt]

wraps around

Wraps around what?

or be a fishbowl with a clearly defined edge?

Well, that would mean there's more universe beyond that edge now, wouldn't it? ;)

[Zaldron]

wraps around

Wraps around what?

Itself.

Imagine you live on 2 dimensions. The world from your eyes should look like a line horizontal line, wich could lead you to believe the Universe is a planar surface. Then there must be an end for it, if you walk a lot.

Unless it's distorted on the 3rd dimention. A 2D world could be the surface of a sphere, or a moebius band, or a friggin duck-shaped thing.

Same thing happens with our Universe. One could believe it's some kind of infinite volume, or a really really big sphere. But in fact it's fucking distorted and warped and full of wrinkles at hundreds of millions of light years from us, where the only thing we can detect are anomalies in the quasar's radiation.

The Universe could be so twisted you might actually keep travelling straight ahead and end in the start point. But these deformations are noticeable in the fourth dimension, so we can't really tell, just as people from Flatland will never know how their Universe really looks like.

[Linguica]

I think the best analogy to our universe is the screen for the old game Asteroids. If you fly off one edge you appear on the other side as if nothing had happened. The Asteroids universe is thus finite in size but without any edges. Our universe is like that but in 3D.

[nxn]

disturbing, I'm taking a class on this next semester.

[Liam]

I suppose what Zaldron/Ling said makes sense, but for some reason I always thought of the universe as infinite.

[Zaldron]

It is in it's very own twisted way. Just like walking around the World, it never ends.

[nxn]

yes, but there is only that much you can see in the world, granted it is a lot, but still it's limited.

[Zaldron]

And your point was...?

[Kid Airbag]

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL BABBLING

[ShadyXMR]

Damn, Zaldron beat me to it.

For more 2D goodness and theoretical mindfucker stuff get Flatland by E.A. Abbott (I think) and Sphereland by Dionysus Burger (I think).

[læmænt]

I can't imagine anything infinite. A universe that wraps around, however, is quite simple, and seems an obvious solution.

I guess the problem is with my imagination.

[IMJack]

For more 2D goodness and theoretical mindfucker stuff get Flatland by E.A. Abbott (I think) and Sphereland by Dionysus Burger (I think).

I was able to find both books in a double book. The first book is an interesting study in both planar/spacial mathematics, and in the conflict between science and religion, even if it is extremely racist and sexist. (How do you determine race and sex in a bunch of polygons, you ask? Read the book. It's quite wierd.)

[Katarhyne]

You people broke my brain.

[Fredrik]

"In order to discuss observations in cosmology, it is helpful to draw a diagram of events in space and time, with time going upward, and the space directions horizontal. To show this diagram properly, I would really need a four dimensional screen. However, because of government cuts, we could manage to provide only a two dimensional screen."

- Stephen Hawking

[nxn]

And your point was...?

you said it was infinite in it's own way, like the world is infite because if you keep walking in a straight line sooner or later you'll end up in the same spot. But that's not being infinate. If it really was infinate, you could keep walking for an infinate amount of time and never reach an end or come back to the same place. You know that though, so basicly I don't have a point to make, oh well.

[ShadyXMR]

For infinity crap get Infinity and the Mind by Rudy Rucker (gawd I'm a damn library).

Consider the following:

Suppose that the space we live in is infinitely large. Consider an infinite line L contained in our space. L is infinity yards long, and L is infinity feet long. But since each yard is three feet, L is also three-times-infinity long. How can infinity equal three-times infinity?

[Zaldron]

Bah, any rational number multiplied by infinite equals infinite. That's something often use while dealing with limits.

[Fredrik]

Any number multiplied by my intelligence equals infinite?

[nxn]

hmm, is there something such as negative infinity?

[Fredrik]

In your case, any number multiplied by your IQ becomes zero =)

[Liam]

hmm, is there something such as negative infinity?

I wouldn't think so.

[nxn]

In your case, any number multiplied by your IQ becomes zero =)

yeah? well, in your case, any number multiplied by your IQ is negative zero =]

[læmænt]

hmm, is there something such as negative infinity?

I believe this concept is introduced in grade five or so?