[_ Old Earth _] The Center

[Pard]

Not sure if this a scientific topic or otherwise so I just posted it here...

Not saying that the Earth is the center of the universe in the geocentric theory and I am sure it is the center of God's universe (in the figurative sense). However is there a scientific reason that Earth cannot be the mathematical center of the universe?

Now the universe has no known size nor is there a unit of measure large enough to quantify the size if it did have one. So let's do what so many of my science teachers have always been able to do so dang well... speak hypothetically.

Assuming the universe is 10units in diameter:

Is there any reason that Earth cannot be located at the center of this universe? Meaning if you superimpose a grid over the universe Earth would be located on the origin (0.0)

 

[Barbarian]

Not sure if this a scientific topic or otherwise so I just posted it here...

Not saying that the Earth is the center of the universe in the geocentric theory and I am sure it is the center of God's universe (in the figurative sense). However is there a scientific reason that Earth cannot be the mathematical center of the universe?

For the same reason that Arp, Texas can't be the mathematical center of the surface of the Earth, Earth can't be the mathematical center of the universe. There is no such thing, since space (like the surface of the Earth) is finite but unbounded.

 

[Classik]

For the same reason that Arp, Texas can't be the mathematical center of the surface of the Earth, Earth can't be the mathematical center of the universe. There is no such thing, since space (like the surface of the Earth) is finite but unbounded.

He has a good question and you have a good reply.
We can't fly out of the universe of God.

 

[Roof]

Edit: I imagine that we are already at the center of our own Universe maps for the simple reason that our telescopes see the same distance in most directions. So by default we would be 0, 0, 0 mathmatically until/if we run into an alien civilization that already has dominance over the Universe maps. Like how the British Empire maps in 1884 determined where the Prime Meridian (longitude 0) would be for the rest of the world.

 

[lordkalvan]

Not sure if this a scientific topic or otherwise so I just posted it here...

Not saying that the Earth is the center of the universe in the geocentric theory and I am sure it is the center of God's universe (in the figurative sense). However is there a scientific reason that Earth cannot be the mathematical center of the universe?

Now the universe has no known size nor is there a unit of measure large enough to quantify the size if it did have one. So let's do what so many of my science teachers have always been able to do so dang well... speak hypothetically.

Assuming the universe is 10units in diameter:

Is there any reason that Earth cannot be located at the center of this universe? Meaning if you superimpose a grid over the universe Earth would be located on the origin (0.0)

You may find the discussion at here helpful:

curi ous.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=154

The most relevant point: according to the Cosmological Principle, no matter from where you observe the Universe, you will be appear to be at the centre of a sphere about 15 billion light years in radius.

 

[Classik]

The most relevant point: according to the Cosmological Principle, no matter from where you observe the Universe, you will be appear to be at the centre of a sphere about 15 billion light years in radius.

cool Stuff!

 

[Sinthesis]

Here is one way to visualize it... kind of, but not... by subtracting 1 spacial dimension and visualizing the earth as the universe.

While there is no center of the 2 dimensional surface of the earth (Jerusalem is not the center of the earth), if you look at its surface in its idealized 3 dimensional form (sphere), you can see that every point on the surface of the earth is exactly the same distance from the center of the earth's sphere along a straight line perpendicular to the 2 dimensions of the surface of the ground (i.e. 'up/down'). Now imagine up/down as corresponding to time, so that the earth started as a 1 dimensional point that as a result of the big bang has over time progressively expanded as a series of spheres. The past is a smaller sphere, the future is a larger sphere. A two dimensional surface expanding through time as a third dimension.

For the universe, just add 1 spacial dimension and invert it so that instead of looking down through history with the center of the earth representing the singularity at the beginning of time, instead you are at the center of a 15 billion light year diameter sphere but can look 'up' in any direction back through history to the beginning of the universe at the beginning of time.
Easy:headbomb

 

[lordkalvan]

Here is one way to visualize it... kind of, but not... by subtracting 1 spacial dimension and visualizing the earth as the universe.....

I had to read it twice, but I think I get it. A dramatic visualisation, indeed.