How many people are there in the Universe?

[jonnylane]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
do you want the accurate answer or a precise one?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha!

[jonnylane]

Originally posted by Paddy
Zao PM'd me with the right answer, although Technoid got it over at #murc.

Thanks Zao for the transcript - saved me having to find it!

Beer is in the post!

its not really fair to say this. You CAN say the population Density is near enough zero.

Lets think about planet population. If the universe is infinite, it has infinate volume. Although there are many planets, they clearly do not take up the whole universe (there are gaps) so there are not an infinite number of planets in the universe. Most are not habited: well, we dont really know that. We know of about 10 planets that are not habitied, leaving (a big number-10) planets that are possibly habited. We could assume that our solar system is a good axample, leaving 1/10 th of all planets inhabited.

By this rationale is is possible to ascertain that there are more people than planets in the universe, since each planet can hold more than one person. In fact, we could say that the average population of a planet is 3billion/10, since we have no more information to go on.

If you hadn't bought me a variety of ostrich related goods, i'd demand a beer.

The egg was great by the way. |t did scrambled egg on toast for 8 people.

[GNEP]

Only 8? I've fed 20 from one egg before

[Brian Ellis]

How can the universe be infinite when space is curved? It's sure to come back on itself sooner or later, in which case it must be finite.

Starting at the big bang, all the matter in the universe was pulled gravitationally into a minute space at such a rate that the space between the particles was eliminated. The result of the explosion was sending all the debris, which was blown into subatomic particles, most of which combined into hydrogen atoms. Today, at the farthest reaches of the universe, there are still clouds of hydrogen atoms that have not collided or been pulled into gravitational fields or slowed down by them. It would seem reasonable that these pioneer atoms that have travelled farthest from the centre form a sphere of unimaginable radius (curved). I would guess that, as their kinetic energy is eventually dissipated by collisions and gravitational pull, one day, in a few zillion years, they will stop and go into reverse gear and all matter will be pulled back again to the centre for the next big bang. However, I'm not worrying about that happening, at least today

What I'm saying is that the universe, as we understand it, can never be infinite. It is only out brains that are too small to be able to comprehend its finite size, so we prefer to think of it as quasi-infinite.

Only God is infinite, if she exists.

[GNEP]

As I said, finite and unbounded in at least 4 dimensions. Which is indeed quite tricky to get your head round.

Don't believe any of that "Big Bong" rubbish. The World was actually made by this painter and decorator bloke in 7 days (well, he quoted 3, took 6 and had a long tea break at the end). Or so I've heard, anyway

[Paddy]

Only 8? I've fed 20 from one egg before

Jon likes his food!

[jonnylane]

i didnt say the universe was infinite.

someone else did.

what did you have to eat last night P? S n T n C?

[Paddy]

As I said, finite and unbounded in at least 4 dimensions. Which is indeed quite tricky to get your head round.

So where do the elephants fit in???

[GNEP]

Right here:

(to steal from Brian's post in the other thread)

[Paddy]

what did you have to eat last night P? S n T n C?

I went for the gormet burger (16oz) - Couldn't finish it!

btw, we found a great recipie for the steak:

cook the steak then remove from the pan and add:
1tsp of corriander seeds
juice and zest of one orange
2tbsp of redcurrant jelly
1glass of red wine

Reduce and serve.


It was gooood

[GNEP]

Is that for Ostritch steak? That stuff is really really good. (and v. v. lean)...

[jonnylane]

Originally posted by Paddy
Jon likes his food!

damn right!

there was plenty left for the cleaner though! It disapeared. Maybe she took it home to feed her children...

Sorry to hear about the adverse effect on the fishies Pad; they clearly dont like protein as much as we do. Drop in a hungry horse special and they'd be upside down within minutes.

[Paddy]

Yup, I found an ostritch farm on the way back from work last week

There will be none left soon

[Fat Tone]

Why does an elephant have 4 feet?
















because it would look pretty stupid with 6 inches!

[VJ]

Originally posted by Paddy
It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them.

I still think this is fishy (no, not babelfishy )... If I have a square, one might say there is an inifinite number of space to put points in it. Yet, this is not mandatory: if I decide to put 10 points in it, then so be it... It would just be a waste of space. IMO, having an infinite amount of space does not imply that there are an infinite amount of worlds.......

On the other hand, it is possible for a subset to be infinite: e.g. the set of prime numbers in all of the natural numbers... So how do we know there is a finite number of inhabited worlds ?



Jörg