@bschott "In any 3D volume, 4 X 90 degree turns in the same direction will return you to your starting point." No that is wrong. I admit that the concept of 'flat space' they used in this article is hard to wrap your head around. But they are talking about our 3D universe being flat in 4D space. Just like you would say that the 2D surface of a ball is not flat in 3D, our universe could be 'warped' in 4D space (hard to imagine because the world you are used to 'think' in is 3D and relatively flat).
If the universe was warped, for example into the '3D surface of a 4D ball', four 90° turns wouldn't are up to exactly 360°.
As a layman, I have to say, I'd expect a fireball to be a close analogy of big bang. I also need to ask..it it IS flat, could the universe be 'flat' because it was constrained during/after inflation? Could this 'dark energy' (DE) be evidence of what might have done so/be doing so, if so? Would taking that into consideration change the math? And/or - could DE be describing where our universe is contacting/touching planes of other dimensions, and/or other universes? in another vein - perhaps - could DE in itself be a shadow/projection of a big event? Has anyone tried to correlate any of it to the background microwave image? Or has DE been grown/shrunk using simulators? I'd love some references if any are going spare.
bebunaca
Jun 26, 2017"In any 3D volume, 4 X 90 degree turns in the same direction will return you to your starting point."
No that is wrong. I admit that the concept of 'flat space' they used in this article is hard to wrap your head around. But they are talking about our 3D universe being flat in 4D space. Just like you would say that the 2D surface of a ball is not flat in 3D, our universe could be 'warped' in 4D space (hard to imagine because the world you are used to 'think' in is 3D and relatively flat).
If the universe was warped, for example into the '3D surface of a 4D ball', four 90° turns wouldn't are up to exactly 360°.