Pegajace t1_ja4apqv wrote
Reply to comment by ExtremeQuality1682 in Eli5 Help, please my brain hurts. If there is an expanding ring of light from the big bang, what is outside it? by ExtremeQuality1682
The speed of light is an upper limit on how fast matter, energy, and information can move through space. The expansion of space during the Big Bang (and afterwards at a much slower rate) is something fundamentally different from motion. It’s a “metric expansion,” which doesn’t require anything to move within space and is not limited by the speed of light. It’s not even measured in the same units as speed; speed is distance/time, whereas expansion is (distance/time)/distance, which oddly collapses down to just units of 1/time.
ExtremeQuality1682 OP t1_ja4bpxl wrote
I so very much appreciate your time. This is unacceptable to not comprehend to my brain. Please elaborate how is Expansion = (distance/time)/distance? I feel if I can understand that I'll "get it"
extra2002 t1_ja5nv01 wrote
The speed of something moving away is proportional to how far away it is, so the rate is measured as speed/distance. Speed is distance/time, so ...
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