Finite or not? The Universe.
The way God made it (so I was taught from toddlerhood to early teens) it is God-like and therefore infinite (and eternal, just like Heaven and Hell—though God might call and end to things one of these days if we don’t behave).
And isn’t it funny how you sometimes simply accept some opinion or other about things even as important as this? I sure did. Swallowed it hole: sure, the universe is infinite and eternal.
And there it lay, for years, uninspected and (as far as I was concerned) true: the universe is indeed both infinite and eternal.
A while ago I ran across Olber’s paradox, and that blew me out of the water. If you have not come across it, I recommend that you do check it out.
In short, Olber’s paradox states that the darkness of the night sky conflicts with the assumption of an infinite and eternal universe.
Also referred to as the “dark night sky paradox” the argument goes on to say that—were the universe infinite—at any angle from the Earth the sight line would end at the surface of a star, so the night sky should be completely white. This contradicts the darkness of the night sky and leads many to wonder why we do not see only light from stars in the night sky.
And this question (if the universe were infinite and eternal) becomes especially appropriate if you consider that light will have had a full eternity to get here from an infinite number of stars: yes, the night sky should be as light as the surface of the sun.
But it isn’t, is it? At least not in northern Idaho. Ergo, the universe neither infinite nor eternal.
It is very finite.
Then, just this morning, thinking about this, it struck me like a mild mallet blow: if the universe indeed were infinite, it would by definition contain an infinite amount of matter, in fact it would consist only of matter. But it doesn’t, does it? It consists mainly of space, which almost by definition is the lack of matter. So the amount of matter in the universe is not infinite. But should be, if the universe were.
So, again, the universe is finite.
This came as a big relief for me (and should for anyone who feels a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of things around here). Things are finite.
Well, look it, the numbers are overwhelming, aren’t they. Let’s look at water alone.
There are 2 sextillion oxygen atoms and 4 sextillion hydrogen atoms in a single drop of water. One sextillion, by the way, is a one followed by 23 zeros (100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
And how many drops of water in the ocean? I don’t know. I’m sure someone has figured it out. But many, that’s for sure. A lot more than sextillions that’s for sure.
And how many planets are out there with oceans? Well, the new data from the astronomy side of things is that we have about 300 sextillion stars in the universe, trillions of which play host to planets like ours, with oceans of drops of 2 sextillion oxygen/4 sextillion hydrogen atoms of water.
The number is, by any reckoning impossibly large, but—and this is an enormous but—it is finite. The atoms in the universe are countable, all you need is a little patience and a lot of time.
And for some reason this makes me feel better.
Ulf Wolf
PS. I always thought the Kalahari bushman the smartest of all of us when he counts one, two, many… and leaves it at that.