
Originally Posted by
Abrakadabra
In other words you are saying everything or most things we discuss are not really relevant, but hypothetically relevant. Most of it is based on assumptions and conjectures. Telescopes cannot make predictions it can only observe through lenses that are an extension of human eyes. Is this a quest to change earth and the way we live? It is certainly mind boggling to even ask question about the universe but more mind boggling to expect an answer the way we want it, yet we do it anyway.
.I do not think the problem of finding a name is a great one, I think finding out how something works is the intriguing question. However I am still at the point where I want to know about space before I can begin to think that I am making sense to myself. What is space? I cannot see it as just the space between objects in much the same way I can understand white matter from black matter. What is light energy opposed to dark energy. These question are still floating around out there waiting for some picture from a observascope to reveal its nature to us so we can move on to understanding the universe. What do you think?
I think you've got the point. Physics generally turns out to be simple [but not easy], but the process of figuring out how things work is very complicated indeed. The big advantage of science is that it is based on observations, and within reasonable bounds the observations are true. However, understanding how things work is messy, and you are sometimes very unsure what is true and never absolutely sure that you have all the important parts right. Hearing someone's new work, or better yet having an idea yourself, gives you a "So THAT is how it is" reaction, and if you are lucky, reading about a part of physics you don't yet know gives you much the same feeling.
Like essentially all of physics, at least when fully understood, space is a mathematical construct. I find it absolutely fascinating that we live in a universe all of which is a mathematical construct, simple in principle but complicated in the way the pieces fit together. For space, we start with the idea of distance, how many meter sticks can I fit between me and that tree? Then we find there are three independent spatial dimensions plus the rather more mysterious time dimension. Then Einstein comes along and tells us that the four dimensions are woven together and that they are mathematically curved. Time is just another dimension like the other three. Then we have difficulty understanding the idea because space is purely mathematical and we were expecting something more concrete. Moreover, there are visualization problems like space being curved within itself, not into an additional dimension like all the objects we are used to. Worse, space is expanding so that the objects embedded in it are getting further apart without moving within space. It takes quite a bit of thought to decide which of the old concepts are helpful in visualizing the reality and which need to be ignored altogether. Then when you learn to live with the new ideas, even newer things show up. And it never ends, because nobody knows all that there is to know.
It is frustrating to be in the middle of something that is not completely understood, but it is exciting as well.