Expansion of the Universe: Perceiving the centre of the Universe

» John_Croft - Perceiving the centre of the Universe

Since three dimensional space can be considered to be the surface of space-time which is four dimensional, then the centre of the universe is not located in space but in time, at the moment of the Big Bang singularity itself.... (i.e. just as a two dimensional surface of the Earth (described by latitude and longitude) is a two dimensional surface on a three dimensional sphere).

Finding the centre of the universe is therefore easy. As the further away we look the further back in time we look, and as we cannot see further back before 300,000 years after the big bang (as before that matter and energy were tightly coupled and space was not transparent), then we see "the centre of the universe" in every direction in which we look - in the Microwave background radiation left over from the big bang. The centre of the universe is therefore everywhere (in the same way as the centre of the surface of the Earth is also everywhere). We need a third dimension to see the true centre of the Earth... So we need a fourth dimension, time, to see the true centre of the Universe.

Hope this helps

Regards

John

-- posted by John_Croft