# Centerless expansion or a matter of perspective [duplicate]

I get this question a lot:

Where is the center of the Universe?

I see this question on the internet all of the time:

Where is the center of the Universe?

Now I have a question regarding all of the answers that I always either give or read: The question linked is the last question and answer that I saw before posing this question here, and is in no way the same question, as this question asks how the concept of a centerless universe can work, whereas the question below asks about how a universe can be perceived to be centerless even when it might not be.

Is the Universe centerless? Or does it simply appear to be because of our perspective?

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If you were a bird floating in the ocean, among a myriad of other birds, and you let time pass such that every bird floated away from the other birds in some random fashion. Would you, at some later time when everybirdy was roughly separated from one another, say that based upon your observations of the present conditions, and some evidence that at one point all of the birds were together, that the ocean is centerless? Or could you assume that because of your position in the flock, that from your perspective you can't tell where the center is, nor do you think that from a different birds position would you be able to tell? Creating the illusion of a centerless ocean.

Obviously this requires you not be at or close to the very edge of the flock.

• – ProfRob Nov 18 '16 at 19:12
• This question is nothing like the link you provided @RobJeffries... The assumption here is that all known physical concept are obviously legit, and now take a step back and look at the universe from a "different perspective." Do you come to the same conclusion? or do you see a different universe? Not centerless! ... say what?... – LaserYeti Nov 20 '16 at 4:00
• You might try asking over at math stack. There's probably a theorem somewhere stating that every closed physical manifold has a center, in the classical sense, but that info is not going to be easy to find in human readable format. – Wayfaring Stranger Nov 20 '16 at 15:17