Is The Universe Infinite?

I'm just a guy with time on my hand due to illness ... So don't laugh or call me stupid but if space is a vacuum then wouldn't it have to be contained or finite?

a vacuum has nothing in it, but the Universe is in space and it has plenty in it, so the space of the universe is not a vacuum.

The "is the universe infinite?" question is more about the "shape" of space than its contents.

The question is, if you travel in one direction for an infinite amount of time, will you ever come to some kind of barrier, loop back to where you started, or keep going on into increasingly empty space?

If space is a "bubble" shape, then it would be impossible to go beyond the bubble's outer limit.

Since we can't even see to the edge of the universe, we will probably have no answer on this for quite a long time.

A vacuum is basically minimal pressure, where a hypothetical perfect vacuum would be zero pressure. On earth, we only need a container because atmospheric pressure is so much higher that it will naturally push its way into any lower pressure area, making it impossible to maintain a vacuum. In space there is no significant overall pressure that would require and bounds to maintain a vacuum within.

This post has been edited by synthsin75 on Mar 19 2012, 08:30 PM

So wouldn't the amount of vacuum indicate the amount of mater in some way?