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Is the Universe Shaped Like a Funnel?
DrMorpheus writes "A new theory of the shape of the Cosmos posits that the Universe may be shaped like a medieval horn, according to Frank Steiner at the University of Ulm. This theory, if true, could explain several strange observations about the microwave background radiation. The Universe would be stretched out at one end into a long tube and flared out into a bell at the opposite end. The technical name for this shape is a 'Picard topology'. To quote the article, '...our Universe is curved like a Pringle, shaped like a horn, and named after a Star Trek character. You could not make it up.'"
How can the universe, the sum of everything which exists, have shape? What, then, is outside this funnel? Isn't it infinitely large by definition?
Maybe that's why music soothes the soul. I mean, if the whole universe has the shape of a sound producing "horn".. (I know, the subject said "funnel" but the body says "horn" and I'm a brass player)
My only next question is has anyone determined the resonant frequency set fot it? It's have to be almost imperceptable in the low end. Jeeze. We're talking about pico Hz here.
Wasn't discovered a few years ago that there was a prevailing low Bb (lots of octaves below the tuba range) sounding through the universe?
"Good Night..." dingdingdingdingding
-=fshalor
If you turn the picture sideways, it really looks like the space-time distortion caused by an extremely massive object, like a black hole. This reminds me of the theories that the universe is inside a black hole. The apparent expansion of the universe would be caused by the stretching of the space-time continuum.
So, could you have black holes embedded inside the distorted space of another (huge) black hole (almost fractally?).
Many electronic appliances and lights give off a very low db B-flat hum (at least in the US) because of the 60hz frequency in the electricity here (60hz = Bb). I suppose in Europe it's a different pitch (50hz).
Anyway, because of this constant Bb that we're all subconsciously bombarded with, most people, when asked to hum ANY pitch, will hum a Bb!! (Learned this in a music class at college)
moo
"At the other end, the horn flares out, but not for ever - if you could fly towards the flared end in a spaceship, at some point you would find yourself flying back in on the other side of the horn."
and... "At an extreme enough point, you would be able to see the back of your own head."
This is an example of symmetry, something that is paramount in keeping when explaining shapes of the Universe. Just had to point this out...
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
Whatever happened to the theory (IANAP) that the universe, at least as described by our limited understanding of dimensions, was shaped like a toroid? I seem to recall this as a popular (as in popular science) theory a decade ago.
Damn those pesky terrorists
Why couldn't an object have only one side?
John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
It is considered more philosophically pleasing for the universe to have finite volume (rather than infinite)?
The concept of a universe with no beginning in time might be un-pleasing because it could mean an infinite amount of time has passed until this moment, which seems absurd. But I don't see any similar paradoxes with infinite volume. Nothing has to travel an infinite distance to get where it is. Nevertheless, it seems the finite volume aspect of this model is one of its proposed selling point. Can anyone explain?
According to current theory, there is no outside of the universe.
That is, it's not just, that there is nothing outside of the universe, but "outside of the universe" itself doesn't exist.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Maybe the universe is shaped like a klein bottle? The curvature at the end would be similar to the 'horn' model and it would explain the 'turning around' that allegedly occurs at the edge of the horn. Just trying to imagine traveling in a klein bottle is making my head hurt though.
Not quite... they're talking in strictly spacial terms. When they say the Universe is shaped like a trumpet, they mean literally like a trumpet.
Yours was my first impression too until I read the first few paragraphs.
--- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
I've ranted here before about the shoddy reporting that the New Scientist does. It's very curious to me that the only matches on Google for "Picard topology" are from this article. Can anyone shed some light on this situation? Picard groups are certainly well-known enough. If nothing else, it's something to be skeptical about. Is this really so new that nobody has ever mentioned in on the web, or is it just poor terminology? (Note that one of the scientists is quoted as using that term, but it's phrased in a way that makes it sound like the reporter put words in his mouth.)
Steven N. Severinghaus
A Klein bottle? If you took the end of the funnel and passed it back through itself it would look just like a klein bottle:. html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KleinBottle
Then your banjo was out of tune. 60Hz is actually closer to B-natural, the B-flat in that octave is actually 58.27 Hz (assuming a tempered A 440 tuning), while B-naturral is 61.74 Hz.
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
Why do we continue to classify the shape of the Universe?
Because knowing more about the universe allows us to narrow down the possibilities of existence. For instance, if this new story is actually the case, it means that the universe is finite. So far there has been no real evidence that the universe is finite, leaving open the possibility that the universe is infinite. (i'm talking the universe here, not just our hubble volume)
If the universe is infinite, you necessarily have an infinite number of identical copies of you, living exactly the same life you are. You can even make a rough estimate about literally how far you are away from your nearest "twin". (s/he is 10^(10^28) metres away from you) Read the article at scientific american. It is online somewhere, but here is the abstract
See how physics is so closely tied to philosophy? That's why physics used to be called "natural philosophy". Knowing more about the universe allows us to...well, know more about the universe, and hence, the philosophical implications.
Knowledge is good.
cheers!
An hourglass... two funnels connected together.
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
The article made me think of this gem:
'Alright,' said Ford, 'imagine this. Right. You get this bath. Right. A large round bath. And it's made of ebony.'
'Where from?' said Arthur, 'Harrods was destroyed by the Vogons.'
'Doesn't matter.'
'So you keep saying.'
'Listen.'
'Alright.'
'You get this bath, see? Imagine you've got this bath. And it's ebony. And it's conical.'
'Conical?' said Arthur, 'What sort of...'
'Shhh!' said Ford. 'It's conical. So what you do is, you see, you fill it with fine white sand, alright? Or sugar. Fine white sand, and/or sugar. Anything. Doesn't matter. Sugar's fine. And when it's full, you pull the plug out... are you listening?'
'I'm listening.'
'You pull the plug out, and it all just twirls away, twirls away you see, out of the plughole.'
'I see.'
'You don't see. You don't see at all. I haven't got to the clever bit yet. You want to hear the clever bit?'
'Tell me the clever bit.'
Ford thought for a moment, trying to remember what the clever bit was.
'The clever bit,' he said, 'is this. You film it happening.'
'Clever,' agreed Arthur.
'You get a movie camera, and you film it happening.'
'Clever.'
'That's not the clever bit. This is the clever bit, I remember now that this is the clever bit. The clever bit is that you then thread the film in the projector... backwards!'
'Backwards?'
'Yes. Threading it backwards is definitely the clever bit. So then, you just sit and watch it, and everything just appears to spiral upwards out of the plughole and fill the bath. See?'
'And that's how the Universe began is it?' said Arthur.
'No,' said Ford, 'but it's a marvelous way to relax.'
The USian group centred on a B-flat (multiple of 60 Hz), while the Europeans centred on an A-natural (multiple of 50 Hz).
Hardly qualifies as a controlled study. But still suggestive that the background EMF frequency and device hum has some unconcious influence on the psyche?
How very strange - my Google search came up with several references to the Picard Theorem's from Laboratoire Emile Picard. Of course, these were in French, so perhaps filtering is to blame.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
Back in the navy, I spent many-a-midwatch on an aircraft carrier standing next to 60Hz, 4160V power panels, playing slow harmonica melodies on top of that 60Hz hum. :-)
If the universe has a shape, doesn't that imply it is contained within something? What would that something be?
still wrong, but closer with the 120 Hz, at 60 Hz most people have hard time hearing the sound. The noise is created by the real power (p=v*i) the multiplication of the voltage and the current both 60 Hz waveforms. When you multiply two sine waves together you get a doulble frequency and a half frequency component. That is what you are hearing
Take the big bang. Infinitesimal point.
... which looks exactly like a horn.
Explode that shape over time.
Now look at it four dimensionally...
Surely you end up with an r^2 curve rotated through 3 dimensions, with r on the time axis...
Coming soon - pyrogyra
In "Eternity", the sequel to "Eon", Ser Olmy returns to 21st(?) century Earth having taken a *very* long round trip via the opposite end of the universe - which turns out incidentally to have been be horn shaped - in the traditional sense of a curved or rolled up tube with a wide bell-like flaring at one end.
So there.
That faster then light travel is possible. All you have to do to achieve it is jump from one loop of the horn to another outside of the universe. The tighter the loops the more shortcuts are possible. Problem solved. Now if I can only get this antigravity module to start working....
Do not look into the laser with remaining eye.
Some physcists such as Alan Lasserby suggest mysterious forces can be explained by slight pertubations of Euclidean geometry on a universe-size scale. This could explain the anti-gravity force called "dark energy". Its thought to compromise 70% the "stuff" in the universe, but obliviated by a geometric explanation.
The Picard topology sounds like what was referred to in my math class as Gabriel's Horn.
An apparent paradox concerning this shape's infinite interior surface area and finite volume is that one could never paint the entire surface area, but could simply fill it paint, thus painting it. However, the resolution to this paradox is that since the horn's diameter eventually becomes smaller than that of a paint molecule, that part of horn could never be painted.
Sometimes the universe just misbehaves and fails to cooperate with your theories, which is when science gets to be fun - either your theories are thoroughly bogus, or they're slightly incorrect approximations, and this influences whether your previous models are or are not useful.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks