Size of the universe

Hello good people. Thank you for this thread. I especially liked the OP scale of the universe and dogma’s question about the universe’s middle.Got a question for you...sorry if it’s childish....i'm just a manual labourer, hey.So, Q: If we could magically break our bodies down into a cloud of the smallest particles possible, then trace all those bits back through space time — say to when the universe was the size of a tennis ball — and then magically reassemble ourselves there, how big would it all look?Wait, a follow up question. In a sense, all of us were there at the time, right? Eg i love the thought that there is a lineage line going from me all the way back to that first single cell organism....i'm asking is there a similar lineage line from my atoms (or whatever) all the way back to the origin of the universe?Thanks again,Lurkey

Hi CS and NN. Love your work! Yeah a convoluted path for sure!But look let me retract — I’ m learning so much from these threads, reckon I should hold any questions ‘till I’ve lurked quite a bit longer. Have to say though, you guys are all so clear and patient with it. I’m stoked I came here to try and learn some physics.With thanks,Lurkey

I’m getting the feeling this will be my answer: But doesn’t all matter ultimately date back to the big bang? It doesn’t have to be an atomi’d settle for the thing that makes the things that make the atoms.Hay and was just a side-line question too. I now totally retract my original (what does the universe look like from the inside when it was the size of a tennis ball). Seems now I might as well have been asking for a photograph of the inflation field!So look, I won’t follow it up, but I will confess to what was in my mind at the time. I wanted to hear that the universe would look infinitely big (not wrapped up back on itself, but stretching out forever). And this was part of my ‘master vision’ = the size of the universe is like the comparison between natural and even number infinities.In my mind, I had drawn those 2 infinities as a venn diagram..little circle inside big circle. Voila. Today’s universe (natural numbers) and tennis ball universe (even numbers). Both exactly the same size, both infinitely big AND one smaller than the other. Kinda. Smaller is the wrong word, but ffs don't start picking at it.Ok so its a fantasy. Just some ideas are so hardeg I HATE the universe-wrapping-back-on-itself kind of infinity, but somehow the universe-stretching-out-forever kind is ok. Similarly, infinitely small and infinitely big is ok, but I can only deal with the transition if there is no middle ground. A tennis ball size universe really freaks me out!!Hey and why is it a little hard to NOT imagine the tennis ball universe from a spectator’s viewand, it is impossible TO go to that view when imagining today’s universe?!Reckon I got me some internal problems.So, I’ve taken a few deep breaths. Think I need to put the whole concept away until I learn some maths. I’m hearing from you all that calculus is a good starting spot.Still very much enjoying this forum btw.Take care,Lurkey

what a great post!!thanks CS