Is Our Universe Contained Inside One Atom?

[myfinalcoffinx]

now I'm no scientist, but, in physics class today i sat at my desk and let my mind wander.

now- my thought was: could it be a possiblity that our entire universe as we know it, is contained inside of what appears as one single atom in another universe?
would it be completely out of the question that each individual atom contained in our universe is an entire universe in itself?

if there is a name for this, or if anyone has any information on this, please contact me. also- if anyone has anything that seriously proves this idea wrong, please also contact me.

thanks.

 

[Phobos]

Welcome to Physics Forums, myfinalcoffinx!

You're not the first person to wonder that. The first thing to remember with this line of thinking is that we have no information about anything "outside" of this universe (if such a place exists at all)...so we're mostly limited to speculation (imaginative and mathematical).

In general, our universe does not seem to behave like a subatomic particle...so it's probably not...but then again, we cannot see our universe "from the outside".

But, there are scientific speculations that our universe is but one in an infinite number of other, equally valid universes or that our universe is contained within a larger meta-universe. Interesting to think about...no hard evidence though. Check out the "many worlds" theory, M-theory (string theory), etc.

 

[Demigod]

I've also pondered this same idea and wanted to throw in time as a factor into the equation, assuming that the length of time as we know it varies by mass. Now assuming that our universe was an atom of some enormous unknown substance (possibly in a combustion or fission stage), what would the time relevance be in proportion to our known complex atom's size? Anyone have a good calculator? ..

 

[sysreset]

This comment probably has nothing to do with cosmology but more with mathematics: I am sure many of you are familiar with the Mandelbrot set, which is a boundary in the complex plane that forms a fractal image. When you zoom in on the boundary in super-high magnification, you find miniature Mandelbrot sets in there. Apparently this occurs infinitely no matter how far you zoom in. This mathematical fact has often made me wonder about metaverses. Interestingly, the "mini-mandelbrots" are always slight variations of the original, just like metaverse theory allows for variations.

 

[Kurdt]

Hmm. Overly speculative?

 

[cristo]

Whilst this sort of thread may have been allowed when it was started (five years ago), it is not permitted now. Please take a moment to read the PF guidelines, especially the part regarding overly speculative posts.