Thread: how will the universe end?

hi there

there has been recent discussions on the death of the universe itself, and these three terms constantly pops up from the page; "the big crunch", "the big freeze", and the "big rip"

My question here is what are the conditions in which these three ideas, or factors will come about and take place?

The first two possibilities deal with the mass density (omega) of the universe. If the density is high enough, then the universe will stop expanding and shrink back to a singularity (Big Crunch). If not, then it keeps expanding forever. The protons decay after trillions of years and the universe is so difuse that the ambient temperature is that of the CMB (Big Freeze). The third possibility deals with dark energy, which seems to be the energy of space itself. If dark energy continues to grow, then it will overcome the strong nuclear force and all of the atoms will fly apart in about 22 billion years (Big Rip). Discerning the value for omega and for dark energy will contribute to our greater understanding of the universe. Otherwise, these events will happen in the incredibly distant future, so it's really not a Big Deal.

so our universe will end at some point?
and one more question; "what is entropy death?"

Well our universe may "end" in a crunch, but a freeze or rip would mean an ever-expanding, frigid, continuation without end.
I suppose by entropy death one means that the differences between the initial states of all systems in the universe have reached equilibrium and entropy is therefore maxed and will no longer change?

It will not end since their will be no observers to witness the end.

Originally Posted by spuriousmonkey

It will not end since their will be no observers to witness the end.

This is a paradox.

So, it also did not begin, because there was none present at the beginning? The universe is a Schroedinger's cat?

The universe has a beginning and ending but what about a before and after?

can you prove that it has an ending?

There must always have been time (as in change) or the universe would never have started. As to an end, that would surely only happen if there was literally nothing left.