What's outside space ....

[cyberknight]

A light year is purely a unit of distance. It's unfortunate that it has year in the title as distance is the only thing that is being measured.

A light year is 9,460,730,472,580.8 km

Something observed to be 14 billion lightyears away happened 14 billion years ago but is 14 x 9,460,730,472,580.8 km away.

It's more convenient to refer to the distance as 14 light years but again I re-iterate it is a distance.

It might be but the fact that you seem to be missing even by your facts is the speed of light is a constant and takes said time to travel that distance .
Therefore if the light takes 14 billion years to travel the distance then the light you see is 14 billion years old ..... which is what you said and what i said

QED

Seems your being a bit nit picky

 

[Arch]

An independent measure of the size of our universe can be given by studying the oldest stars. The oldest stars we have found are probably somewhere between 11 and 14 billion light years old.

It was the fact that you wrote 'light years old' here, when you just mean 'years old'.

Maybe this was a typo - I think you and vernon are since then violently agreeing with each other...

 

[ComedyPilot]

I like the 'Men in Black' idea that our universe is a small dot in the middle of thousands of other universes, all neatly packaged in a marble on a cat's collar.

 

[Cubist]

I like the 'Men in Black' idea that our universe is a small dot in the middle of thousands of other universes, all neatly packaged in a marble on a cat's collar.

A concept explored in an episode of "The Trigan Empire" in the early 70's.

 

[vernon]

I think you and vernon are since then violently agreeing with each other...

 

[Night Train]

I like the 'Men in Black' idea that our universe is a small dot in the middle of thousands of other universes, all neatly packaged in a marble on a cat's collar.

But the cat was in the same station locker that the MiB were in. Where is the station locker?

 

[marinyork]

.. what do I tell him?

He's been interested in Astronomy since he could turn the pages of a book. But this cosmology stuff seems a bit deep!

The platonic realm.

 

[ColinJ]

Tell him that 'outside space' is the garden, and to go and play in it!

 

[ceeque]

what a hell of a question eh?? I think cyberknights video is good for much of it though the text, taken I note from "wisegeeks.com" seems a little too easy on the whole even though it deals with only what is observable and therefore measurable, it`ll get even worse when we start considering whether different dimensions that have been theorised about in string theory are actually part of our universe and if not, where the hell are they then? Even worse if we consider whether items at the sub-atomic/quark level of size are part of an infinite "smallness"!
Damn, one hell of a ride is coming in science!

 

[Adasta]

Do the lad a favour and tell him that there is no such thing as space, only plenum.

And then tell him to go and play with the worms or something!

 

[asterix]

Think of a star, far, far away..


Quite possibly the Earth did not exist when the star's image started its journey to us; when it arrives and we see the star it may no longer be there.

That would make navigation a little tricky.

 

[JamesAC]

Of course, if you want to encourage his imagination, turn the question round and ask "So, what do you think might be outside?"

Which presupposes there IS an outside!

 

[Adasta]

[QUOTE 1312727"]
I am glad to hear that he is pondering the endlessness that is our Universe, and you aren't worried because he doesn't play football
[/quote]

Could we somehow convert his interest in space into some sort of rapid analysis of attacking prospects up the left-wing?

 

[magnatom]

My five year old son asks similar questions, but to be fair, I've always encouraged him to, and due to my lifelong interest and involvement in science I really enjoy our discussions.

I especially love when he suddenly says, 'I've got it dad!' really enthusiastically and he them comes up with his own theory/answer, some of which are surprisingly logical.

Luckily for him, he doesn't seem too geeky in any other way!

 

[MichaelM]

Therefore if the light takes 14 billion years to travel the distance then the light you see is 14 billion years old ..... which is what you said and what i said

QED

Seems your being a bit nit picky

Hmmm.....

Let's do a mind experiment:

Imagine there to be hypothetical traveller in space, 14 billion light years away, with yourself on earth. Both yourself and the traveller are eqipped with a stopwatch (at the moment set to zero).

I situate myself at the halfway point, 7 billion light years away.

I emit a signal, say a light pulse, which travels at a velocity of constant magnitude c in all directions, and therefore reaches both yourself and the traveller at the same instant (t=0).

On receipt of my signal (t=0), you start your stopwatch, whilst the traveller starts his stopwatch and simultaneously accelerates instantly from rest to the speed of light travelling in the direction of earth.

On arriving on earth, the traveller's velocity instantaneously changes from c to zero, and simultaneously both the traveller and yourself stop your stopwatches.


What does your stopwatch measure ?

What does the traveller's stopwatch measure ?

Do you still think that if the light has taken 14 billion years (as measured by who ?) to travel the distance, that the light you see is 14 billion years old?


Oh, and in reply to the OP, I don't know.