My son asked me this...

It's all around us, even if we don't understand it.

Go ask your mother.

or check the internet...you can find the answer for anything on the internet

Next time, just wave your hand and say, "Over there." Seems as good an answer as any to me.

In the lower left quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy.

If he asks more you could answer - that in and infinite space one point is no closer to another. Thus the answer to your question is simply impossible.

TF

the solar system is in the milky way galaxy is in the universe. you skipped a step, cleandrinkingwater. and thethinkfactory, you got the order wrong.

Also, your answer makes no sense: "that in and infinite space one point is no closer to another"

It looks like you made a typo..perhaps you meant to replace "and" with "an", which would make the statement grammatically correct...but it would still be false.

How so... ? I agree with the typo... (thanks for unsolicited grammer lesson ) but I am not sure I agree with the fact that I am incorrect.

I could arbitrarily choose two points that happen to be 'closer' to one another but in an infinite space that choice would simply be arbitrary.

Thus the concept of 'closer' seems to break down - unless you are speaking of finite space. Then closer makes sence.

Near and far are concepts that simply breakdown in infinite space. This is the same for closer or further away. You would have to presuppose a reference point. In a infinite universe there is no 'better' reference point than another. I guess we could chose our universe - but that would simply be arbitrarily chosing where we happen to be.

However, I, in looking again, think I have the whole point wrong anyway - the question was not - where are we in the universe - the question was - where is the universe.

To which I think that if our universe is all there is - then we are not anywhere. Again, if there is nothing outside of ouor universe - we are not anywhere - we simply are.

But do i think that will make sense to your son... it doesn't even really make sense to me!

TF

this means that for any and all points, all of them will be equidistant. the only way for all points in a space to be equistant from each other is for there to be only one distinct point, and this is synonymous with saying that an infinite large space has infinitely small space, and that is an oxymoron.



Furthermore, the referance point when measuring distance between two points is the other point. So yes, there is a distance between any two points in the universe...and infinite number of points and an infinite number of distances.



By definition, the universe is the largest domain. Therefore, the answer to the question "where is the universe?" is "everywhere," not "nowhere"...and we are not in "nowhere"....cleardrinkingwater's first post already cleared that up.

Is it just that we can't understand the fact that we might be everywhere? How can there be something everywhere? Everywhere has to be somewhere right?

we only know what we're meant to know, we are on a lower conscious level, so to us, yes the ans. stop, but there's always an ans. on higher conscious level which will unfort. never be reached in our time.

Hmm, nn, that sounds a little defeatist. Isn't the point of philosophy to seek answers?

That aside, here's the way it goes. Our planet is the the third planet form the sun and the second last of the small 'rocky' planets. After Mars comes the gas giants. Our sun is a smallish yellow star roughly three quarters of the way out on an arm of a spiral galaxy, a galaxy being a large group of stars, 'spiral' means that when you look at it from the side it's sort of flat and it's spinning, kind of like a big frisbee (with arms ).

It's not even a very big galaxy. In fact when you take a look at the other galaxies on the neighbourhood, we look down right puny. The 'universe' is everything. Everything. (think 'uni', like unicycle, or United States, it mean one). It's not just everything we know or everything we can see. It's everything. All. Which means it has no end. Because anything more would still be part of 'everything'.

As for the 'near/far' thing. I think we have a miscommunication. Yes, when you have infinite space, it doesn't seem to make sense to say that something is 'near'. Near compared to what? The answer is 'near compared to anything else'. (remember, everything is relative)

It's the same as saying that there is no such thing as fast or slow. After all, when you think about it, everything is moving. But if your just whizzing through limitless empty space, it's just the same as staying still because you aren't actually getting anywhere. So introduce another point of reference.

Now you might think that If something just popped into existence while you were whizzing along that it would immediately prove that you were moving all along. Nope. Cause maybe it's actually the other thing that's moving in he opposite direction. And of course it is, since there's no other point of reference.

Same with the near/far thing. OK, so to us it seems that Pluto is far away. But compare that to how far away the next galaxy is and all of a sudden Pluto seems right next door. So near and far are relative terms. They're relative to the scale of what your talking about. They are not however useless. Nearer and Further are even more useful. Because it doesn't matter what the scale. Pluto will always be nearer than the next galaxy and Mars will always be nearer to us than either.

As for "where is the universe". Yup, it's everywhere and everything.

Couldn't you have said "We are in Michigan, son. We are nowhere."

cleandrinkingwater, concerning your signature: you're welcome :wink:

Stuh, Just to be certain I'd have added a Cosmos just in case :wink:

"I don't know" is a perfectly viable answer.

Yes, Limbodog. I don't think the son would be traumatized or confused by the confession. One might even say to our young sons that we don't know, that it's a WONDER-FUL mystery. And I would not be condescendng to him since I would say that to myself and to all of you.

Not traumatized? Hrm... Better make something up then.