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Nature of a straight line in curved space


Atom Man

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I've read that, because of the curvature of the universe, light going in a "straight line" would, given enough time, end up where it started. Now, I know this is impossible to do, but imagine if we had a wire making machine that could, for the sake of this thought experiment, make wire really, really fast. Ignoring the length of time it would take - would it also end up where it started so that the front end could connect to the back end, resulting in an actual loop of wire in some sense. Is there some abstract mathematical perspective from which it would be "seen" curving back on itself? I'm afraid - and I'm probably not the only one - I keep imagining it going in a big circle, but I know that can't be right! Any thoughts?

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