420binchicken t1_j1gq6pn wrote
Reply to comment by polovstiandances in Did you know it will still take 46 billion years to cross the universe at the speed of light? 65 mph = 4.8 * 10^17 years! by NotAndroid545
No, the speed at which the balloon can inflate, or the universe can expand, is not limited by the speed of light. The speed of light is a speed limit for things moving across that space, not the space itself expanding.
polovstiandances t1_j1gqrop wrote
Ok, well that’s like, fucking insane right? Maybe my understanding of the concept of space needs revision because conceptually I believe space to still be an object, and nothingness to be space, meaning that an “object” is still moving across a plane (of nothingness) at a rate. But this isn’t very physical or scientific I guess
bendvis t1_j1grw9y wrote
Imagine a wave traveling through water. Each water molecule doesn’t really go anywhere. It just gets bumped and jostled by its neighbors and it ends up moving in a circle as the wave passes through.
Light is a wave too. It’s a wave passing through the electromagnetic and mass fields in the same way that a wave passes through water. Light is a vibration that propagates through those fields. So, empty space is an area whose fields aren’t vibrating. The fields are still there just like water is still there when there isn’t a wave passing through it.
polovstiandances t1_j1gs4lm wrote
Oh wow, this was a really helpful image. Thank you. Damn I should have studied this shit.
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