[mvpel]

So perhaps we're seeing almost to the other side of the universe, but not quite?

Suppose you take a line that's 50 feet long, and you position yourself at the center of it:

------------------------- * -------------------------

Next, you look to either direction, and see two things that are each 20 feet away from you:

-----|------------------- * --------------------|-----

This would lead you to conclude that the two things are 40 feet from each other. But the universe is curved - if you take either end of the line, and bring them together to form a circle with a diameter of 15 feet, then the two things that you are observing turn out to be only 10 feet from each other, not 40 feet.

[camle]

I think you're illustrating my point but with one exception - you are assuming that all three opints are colinear. that was never stated nor implied. the 20 + 20 = 40 argument only applies if the points are coplinear. sinec they almost certainly are not, then the distance between the two points is something less than 40. it's a triangle, not a line, and the opposite side cannot be equal to the sum of the other two sides.