Something From Nothing?

To someone who understands all this, please provide any possible explanation to those of us who don't grasp it yet:1) If in fact the universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate; and2) If in fact all the objects of lesser mass in the universe should be attracted by gravitational pull to objects of greater mass ...What gives?Shouldn't the speed at which the universe is expanding gradually slow rather than accelerate?Is it possible (and I've been told both here and elsewhere in my life that I'm blatantly ignorant, so WTF, here goes ...) that something exists outside and surrounding the bounds of our universe that has a mass greater than the entire mass of our universe?Actually, if this only serves to reveal my ignorance and there is still a cooler full of brewskies on the porch when I get home ... I'll live through it.[editted portion]: By the way, I have read all of the following information regarding this subject and more, but still cannot grasp it from a practical point of view. It all seems like recent theories are formulated to explain rapidly changing viewpoints due to one new discovery after another.http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=274http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/03supernova/Expansion of the Universe Is Accelerating, Data Suggests - The Techhttp://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/end.html[This message has been edited by Abshalom, 01-07-2004]

Specifically using the expanding ballon analogy, how can "nothing" be displaced?

Beercules:Fill a 5-gallon bucket just shy of the rim. Bend over with a deflated balloon stem in your mouth and submerge the body of the balloon in the bucket full of water. Now start inflating the balloon while holding the balloon down in the water. Notice any displacement now?The same thing happens when you inflate a balloon using compressed air or helium from a tank. As the balloon inflates, it displaces the atmosphere into which the inflated balloon expands.My question may appear really stupid to you and others, but again: "How do you displace 'nothing'?"

No wonder I did so poorly in Algebra ... this damned confusing concept of zero. And how the hell did I succeed in art without realizing the importance of negative space? Thank god for fingers, computers, and calculators!

Taco, NosyNed, and others who have been so patient about my inablilty to get wrapped around this balloon analogy:Okay, please tell me a few things:1) Is the information at: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/?id=SOURCE3.SNW related to the balloon analogy by which you are trying to explain the expanding universe? Unrelated? How related?2) If that site is not relevant, could you please guide me to sites that better explain your take on the balloon analogy.I am specifically stuck on the image of a infinite universe that the analogy tries to have me visualize in only two dimensions as if only the "skin of the balloon" with no "thickness" to the fabric.And I can visualize the fabric having no edges only if I can see it all as a ball, irregular spheroid blob, or possibly folded somehow back into itself. Otherwise I keep seeing this elastic fabric being stretched "two-dimensionally" in all directions (x and y) but having no depth or volume (z); not necessarily flat, but basically 2D. This is really hard for someone who has only the old-time take on Big Bang to visualize.Sorry for being so dense on this deal, but being 50-something, I have heard and seen at least a dozen "shapes of the universe" theories explained or depicted, and this one just doesn't flip the light switch for me.Oh well, if nothing else, ignorance is bliss.Peace.

In Message #73 Sidelined hopes, "if Abshalom is alert perhaps he can get hold of the link and we can continue. I am curious what the balloon analogy is about."I'm trying, Sidelined, I'm trying.But when the link uses descriptions like "primordal fireball," I'm still stuck with images of the universe exploding out like a spheroid from a fixed central point like an aerial bomb or firework.I guess I'm saying that with the balloon analogy, I get stuck on the image that the "skin" is expanded out by some force contained "within" the spheriod shape of the ball; and that all of the universe is held together by the tensile connection of the skin in a globe shape.Now, I'm trying to visualize it more like the smoke ring that rolls out the end of iron cannon fired by black powder. I know this visual may not be any more correct than my ass-backward fireball visual, but at least using the smoke ring analogy, I can see the surface "skin" of the material roiling and swirling over and over into itself, expanding, and cooling without there being any necessary "central" point within the gasses themselves; and I can see there is "nothing" outside the cloud itself.Taco's link in Message 72 has lots of links on it's main page that I have not explored, so give me a little more time ...Thanks for the help, though. Still struggling in bliss.Peace.