by Chris Peterson » Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:38 pm
imafwama wrote:If we can only see the same distance in all directions, essentially creating a "ball" of visible data and making our viewpoint centric, is there any way of knowing that we're in a corner? ..lower?..higher? Out in left field? Where in the universe are we?
In three dimensional terms, every point in the Universe (observable or otherwise) can equally be considered the center. There are no corners, no higher or lower.
When you stand on the Earth, you can only see a circle around you, to the horizons. But from the outside, you are simply at an arbitrary point on the surface of a sphere. The same holds true for the Universe.
[quote="imafwama"]If we can only see the same distance in all directions, essentially creating a "ball" of visible data and making our viewpoint centric, is there any way of knowing that we're in a corner? ..lower?..higher? Out in left field? Where in the universe are we?[/quote]
In three dimensional terms, every point in the Universe (observable or otherwise) can equally be considered the center. There are no corners, no higher or lower.
When you stand on the Earth, you can only see a circle around you, to the horizons. But from the outside, you are simply at an arbitrary point on the surface of a sphere. The same holds true for the Universe.