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if we’re only talking about a grapefruit-sized universe, how does the inflationary theory explain away the universe being almost 4 times the radius of how far matter could travel at the speed of light.

According to Inflation Theory, the universe started out so insanely tiny, that even with a supposed expansion rate many many times the speed of light, it only grew to the size of a grapefruit during that supposed inflationary phase of the very very early universe ie, the first 10^ to a large minus number power.

And, again, with universal expansion, there is no problem with the speed of light, because it doesn't involve an object with mass actually traveling THROUGH space, but rather objects being carried away from every other object solely as a result of the space between them 'stretching' and expanding. However, this applies only to objects far enough away from each other such that gravitational attraction is superseded by universal expansion. Because there are some galaxies, and groups of galaxies, that are actually moving towards each other due to their gravitational proximity. For instance, the humongous "nearby" (2.3 million light-years distant) Andromeda Galaxy is actually moving *towards* our Milky Way galaxy and is expected to 'mingle'(collide?) with it in roughly 4 or 5 billion years from now.

Einstein's thing about objects (with mass, ie, darn near every object in the universe) not being able to be *accelerated* to the speed of light is due to the observed fact, that, as objects (with mass) are accelerated toward the unobtainable speed of light, their mass grows to infinity. This is why it gets increasingly harder to 'push' these objects faster as they move closer and closer to the universal speed limit of light. It would require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate them to light speed. And there clearly is NOT an infinite amount of energy in the universe.

Issac Newton's rather simple (pre-Relativity) formula states that F=ma (F=force, m=mass, a=acceleration). In other words, it requires a force, the application of outside, additional energy, to move (accelerate) a mass-containing object.

Objects *without* mass, such as photons, and theoretical particles known as "tachyons", are not governed by the light speed rule. In fact, or actually, in THEORY, these particles are believed to *always* travel at precisely light speed, at least under normal conditions. Gravitons, too, the supposed massless 'carrier' of gravity, travels at precisely light speed.

Likewise, according to Relativity Theory, in addition to mass containing objects growing more and more massive as they are increasingly accelerated, as observed from an outside, assumed stationary observer's point of view (that observer's reality), the object increasingly shortens in length (in the direction of motion), AND the sense of time increasingly slows (again, from the viewpoint of an outside, assumed stationary, observer's frame of reference). Simply put, a moving clock appears to tick out time more and more slowly the faster and faster it moves by you. Same for its perceived mass and its length. And this is not just about "perceptions", but rather distinctly different *realities*, based upon the relative state of motion between two or more different observers (frames of reference).