Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Lamonte on 04/06/2011 21:13:18
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Are infinity and eternity really appreciated? By that I mean several things. First eternity is not measurable, try providing 10% of eternity. It cannot be quantified as time can. It is another dimension in my opinion. From what I have read, a vacuum has an enormous amount of energy. Is it possible our origins came from that energy exploding from an infinite vacuum to create this universe? If so, trillions of universes must exist unless our big bang was a one time event. What I am asking, are infinity and eternity really considered by physicists? I find no books about the possible implications of infinty and eternity. There are books using those words in the title, but none that I know of addressing the possibility of infinite universes.
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Both these concepts have no real meaning or use in physics and are best avoided because people tend to treat them like the mathematical concepts of eternity and infinity which only apply to mathematics and not to the physical universe. I realise that this sounds a bit sacrilegious but let me explain a bit more.
Mathematics is a powerful modelling tool that contains within itself a vast number of possible ideas some with physical uses and many with no physical uses. for example in mathematics there are an infinite number of different sorts of infinities all of which are different. Some of them are conceptually countable but some are not so you are faced with the question which infinity do you mean!
Taking these concepts seriously causes no end of problems and paradoxes and its is far better to consider indefinite extents of space and time.
Remember also in an infinite universe every event that can exist repeats itself not just once but an infinite number of times.
Our visible universe is clearly bounded in space and time and will always be so a long as it exists even though it may only be part of The universe which may or may not be bounded and may itself be only one of an indefinite number of similar or dissimilar universes.
That does not mean that there is no hope of a theory of everything. It just means that our theory of everything may explain fully all the things of which we can ever be aware but it cannot be stated dogmatically that is absolutely everything that could possibly exist. There is always the possibility that things could exist that will never interact in any way with any universe that we could be aware of or model with our theories. Lets face it, if something exists that never could interact with any part of our universe that we could observe or imply it is of no relevance to us anyway.
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∞ (infinity) is an important part of mathematics as the endpoint in many series.
1/∞ is an equally important value as the limit as one approaches zero.
ε (epsilon) would indicate an immeasurably small quantity greater than zero, also an important mathematical concept.
Astronomy & Geology generally like to consider finite times. I.E. the universe being 14 billion years old (which isn't infinite). Or, that our sun is 4.5 billion years old and may last an additional 4 to 5 billion years. It may seem to be an eternity as far as human lifetimes, but it is certainly not infinite.
Perhaps that is the problem with an "eternity" is that it is a very imprecise value.
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Numbers are good for measuring :) and building logics, but sometimes the answers become very strange, and does not 'fit' what we see. Infinity's is one of those strange things that in mathematics can come in 'sizes' so you can have a large 'infinity' and a smaller 'infinity'. Now the question becomes, can I fit the smaller 'infinity' into the bigger? And how about the opposite, as they both are infinite?
As for eternity, how about zero?
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In fractal terms infinity is always the case and applies on both macroscopic and microscopic levels.In special relativity infinite can only be reached when a mass is travelling at the speed of light, as time stops when travelling at this speed and the speed is maintained forever then no amount of time has occured.
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I agree with you Lamonte.
I do not think we humans have any real concept of eternity or infinity.Perhaps this is because we are finite.
Even when we consider the universe, we ask 'what lies beyond the 13.7b light years we know of?' The answer can only be 'infinity'. Then we ask 'What was before the Big Bang?' The answer here must be eternity. And what will come after the universe (if it ever comes to an end), still more eternity.
To my way of thinking, these terms cannot be explained, for to try to explain them, is to put a limit to them.