My poor, three-dimensional brain
the balloon's expanding, yet there's nothing there for it to expand into. No matter, no gas, no physical anything, not even vacuum, literally nothing. If there's literally nothing there, it can't be expanded into.
( Kroney, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:46, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

the universe is everything
and it is getting bigger

why does it need to be expanding into anything?
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:47, Reply)

How can it be getting bigger
unless there is something for it to be getting bigger into?

The concept of something getting bigger relative to nothing except itself is difficult for me to grasp.
( Kroney, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:49, Reply)

that's because you are within the universe
along with everything else.

For all we know the universe itself could be staying the same size and everything in it shrinking at the same rate and in the same way so it looks like the universe is what is getting bigger.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:51, Reply)

The worst thing about all this
is that I'm actually quite bright. Just apparently rather linear.
( Kroney, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:54, Reply)

you can't much more mind-boggling than what we are discussing
I just happen to like wrapping my mind around this sort of thing.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 15:56, Reply)

Ok, how about thinking about it as there's no more stuff in the universe, that stuff stays the same
but that stuff is getting further apart.
(PsychoChomp, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 16:00, Reply)

that's a better way of looking at it
the universe doesn't have outer limits, it goes on for ever, and everything that is in it started in the same place and is spreading out.

I foresee a "but how can it be infinite?" question coming on
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 11 Aug 2010, 16:03, Reply)