The brick wall at the end of the universe

So I am watching Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel and the episode is exploring the shape of the universe. What? You didn't think the shape of the universe is important? Hundreds of people, maybe thousands, are employed to contemplate and investigate it. Therefore, it must be important.

If we accept the theory of the Big Bang, we need to accept that the universe is nothing more than an explosion. That would mean it has a center point and extends out in all directions. Astronomical observations have tended to show this. And, in my experience, explosions always spread out in all directions.

Without knowing the actual shape of the miniscule but incredibly dense whatever-it-was that exploded (assuming something did), the shape of the universe can't be extrapolated. We could assume that the force was equal in all directions from the center. If the whatever-it-was was perfectly spherical then the universe should be spherical. However, the mass of the particles expelled from the center can influence the path of nearby particles.

Thinking about that, it bothers me that we say the universe is 13.75 (or so) Billion years old. Measured from where? Not from Earth, surely. We are not at the outer edge of the universe. We aren't even at the outer edge of our galaxy. Apparently, a number of factors and observations are used in calculating the universe's age. I know very little about this and my limited math background wouldn't be up to verifying the calculations anyway.

In spite of the title of the show, the conversation was all about what might be beyond it.


I'd rather think about the shape of Miss Universe.