Why is the universe egg shaped?

[sp1214]

If the universe is derived from the big bang from a singularity and has been expanding ever since would you expect the shape to be different?

[dustypuss]

good question . I would have expected to be spherical

[dundurn]

Ah, but is it? From our position in the cheap seats of our galaxy and looking out through the dust towards the galactic core where the real action is going on, can we tell what shape it all is with complete accuracy? There is already a theory that the presence of all the matter, rather than anti-matter, that makes up "our" universe is the result of some initial imbalance. Who knows what other spanners were dropped into the early works?

[dustypuss]

if it were egg shaped could there be two universes acting on each other . or could there be lots of universes ? but we just haven't met yet?

[dundurn]

There's a science fiction story by Isaac Asimov - 'The Gods Themselves' in which he puts forward the idea (not necessarily his own) that there can be one universe, or an infinite number of universes - but not 2!

[dustypuss]

why not 2?

[meredith101]

3 is the magic number.
It's very straightforward and well known.
God made one universe it was rubbish, so he made another one, this one, it was ok, but then he was bored and thought 'fq it, I'll make another little one with this little bit I have left over'
It's all in the bible or somewhere.

[Tom Braider]

I thought the universe was shaped like a doughnut. As for why not 2, according to the book it's because while it makes sense to suppose that this universe is all there is, as soon as you encounter evidence of another universe and you have to acknowledge that ours is not unique then it becomes ridiculous to suppose that there aren't an infinite number...
For a serious claim that quantum theory means there really must be an infinite number of universes, see "The Fabris of Reality" by David Deutsch. Made my head hurt!

[sp1214]

If there is more than one universe it would be related to the Fibonacci Series.

[chakka35]

Who says that the universe is egg-shaped? Since we don't know whether the universe has boundaries we cannot know whether it has any shape at all.

[sp1214]

It looks very much like an egg to me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_Univ erse

[darkskies]

That's because something that is spherical (the universe) is being portrayed in two dimensions. It's a map projection, effectively. The closest I can remember is an "uninterrupted sinusoidal" projection, which makes the egg shape you see on wiki

[dustypuss]

lets cover it in chocolate and have it at Easter!!!!!!!!

[Sildromas]

Check out by reading an ancient Indian religious text, the Brahma-samhita, on www.krishna.com.