The first few seconds of the Big Bang: What we know and what we don't

[beesonthewhatnow]

You have 5 bricks. Take 1 away, you have 4 bricks. Keep taking them away until you have no bricks. Take another one away? You can't, there are no bricks to take.

See, I think this is where you’ve gone wrong. We’re talking about seconds, not bricks. Bricks are a thing, time is a measurement.

So, in your crazy ass world there was a starting point. Stuff then happened. Well, what happened before that? Where did the stuff come from?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Not necessarily. Time started at 0 but has no definitive upper boundary.

Yeah it does, there’s only so much of it. Time must be a loop - just look at a clock face, it keeps going round in circles.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Yes...but my point was that
If the universe began before time then how does the universe end without time ending?

The universe began at time 0. Time will end at the end of the universe, but it will be a consequence and not the cause.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Yeah it does, there’s only so much of it.

Unlike your endless inane questioning.

Time must be a loop - just look at a clock face, it keeps going round in circles.

Just like your endless inane questioning.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Not my fault you can’t answer the deepest and most fundamental questions of physics.

 

[Aladdin]

The universe began at time 0. Time will end at the end of the universe, but it will be a consequence and not the cause.

Ok.. yes..
But if the universe is constantly expanding at a given rate which relates to time..in an infinite space... then how does it stop expanding?
What would cause an expansion of the universe to stop? Apart from the expansion slowing down which again relates to "time".
Is there a possibility that a slowing universe could potentially speed up again? Or if it reaches a state of non expansion and stasis then what happens time at that point?

Genuinely interested in your opinion..

 

[Aladdin]

I would add that there is a view that time may have already slowed over billions of years.

Is time slowing down?

Our observations that the universe is accelerating may actually be a sign that time is slipping away

www.newscientist.com

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

 

[mojo pixy]

druids had it right. writing makes you stupid.

Presumably before they were all killed by Romans, who could read and write.

 

[discokermit]

Presumably before they were all killed by Romans, who could read and write.

stabbing people doesnt make you clever.
india was conquered by people who didnt wash their arseholes.

 

[WouldBe]

You have 5 bricks. Take 1 away, you have 4 bricks. Keep taking them away until you have no bricks. Take another one away? You can't, there are no bricks to take.

It's been 5 seconds since the moment of creation. Go back 1 second, it's been 4 seconds since moment 0. Keep going back until you're at that moment. Go back another second? You can't, there is no time left to travel.

I can't think of anything that isn't time 'dependant' so there must have been a time component before the big bang. The time taken for whatever to coalesce, the time taken to reach 'critical mass' etc. Or am I missing something?

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Ok.. yes..
But if the universe is constantly expanding at a given rate which relates to time..in an infinite space... then how does it stop expanding?
What would cause an expansion of the universe to stop? Apart from the expansion slowing down which again relates to "time".
Is there a possibility that a slowing universe could potentially speed up again? Or if it reaches a state of non expansion and stasis then what happens time at that point?

Genuinely interested in your opinion..

As I understand it (with the caveat that I am not an astrophysicist) the theory of slowing expansion was what led to Hawking suggesting that the universe was one of a series - expansion from a singularity, contraction to a singularity, repeat ad nauseam. For reasons that are beyond me this theory has been widely disregarded, but there is still the theory that this universe could reach a point where expansion slows to the point where it reverses.

 

[Mation]

Well quite. Kindness and empathy is all that really separates us from the pain, cold, loneliness and ignorance of existence in this vast, incomprehensibly futile thing we call The Universe.

Thats the spirit!

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Not my fault you can’t answer the deepest and most fundamental questions of physics.

Except I have answered them, you just haven't been able to comprehend the answers.

 

[discokermit]

there was nowhere and nothing before there was everything everwhere. great stuff. well done boffins. good to see you used your time that normal people spend with friends coming up with these grotesque theories.
somehow i think if people could non exploitatively get a shag on the nhs half of this bullshit wouldnt exist.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Except I have answered them, you just haven't been able to comprehend the answers.

 

[Mation]

they can't. they have lost their specs. which are on their head!

My progress in anything today was hindered because I literally lost my glasses for about 2 hours and was frantically searching for them

(Not that I'm a boffin. And they weren't on my head. They'd slipped down the side of the bed.)

 

[Aladdin]

As I understand it (with the caveat that I am not an astrophysicist) the theory of slowing expansion was what led to Hawking suggesting that the universe was one of a series - expansion from a singularity, contraction to a singularity, repeat ad nauseam. For reasons that are beyond me this theory has been widely disregarded, but there is still the theory that this universe could reach a point where expansion slows to the point where it reverses.

That'll be the Big Crunch then.

 

[mojo pixy]

stabbing people doesnt make you clever.
india was conquered by people who didnt wash their arseholes.

Ah but Romans had some genuinely imaginative ways to off their enemies, stabbing was definitely the least of it. And as for druids, getting made entirely extinct isn't a very convincing way to show how clever you are. 'The moral high ground is full of clever corpses' (sounds like a Roman proverb so I stuck it in quotes )

 

[hash tag]

And a very, very long time ago. We're like bacteria in a gut, wondering where we are, how it came to exist and if it's all there is. And while millions of us are dying of hunger and easily-preventable diseases thoughts about how it all began are just a distraction.

I thought most people knew that "we" are just a spec of dust under some alien beings fingernail.

 

[discokermit]

Ah but Romans had some genuinely imaginative ways to off their enemies, stabbing was definitely the least of it. And as for druids, getting made entirely extinct isn't a very convincing way to show how clever you are. 'The moral high ground is full of clever corpses' (sounds like a Roman proverb so I stuck it in quotes )

the whole of humanity along with countless species are on the brink of being wiped out due to global warming and a whole host of other shit. how clever are we in comparison to the druids, who to my knowledge didnt wipe out a single one?

 

[mojo pixy]

I thought most people knew that "we" are just a spec of dust under some alien beings fingernail.

And the entire universe is just one bubble in a really, really big pan of boiling water.

Time for a nice cup of DMTea

the whole of humanity along with countless species are on the brink of being wiped out due to global warming and a whole host of other shit. how clever are we in comparison to the druids, who to my knowledge didnt wipe out a single one?

Well, we're here, and in the end isn't that what matters?

Plus the mistletoe is all ours now.

 

[hash tag]

There are the things we know that we know.
There are the things that we know that we don't know.
There are the unknown unknowns then there are the unknown knows.
Dr Becky

 

[A380]

Intelligence develops so the universe can think about itself. Every atom of Hydrogen in all of us ( 9.5% of our bodies) was formed seconds after the universe. Every atom of anything else that makes us us was forged in the heart of either one or two stars. Then local flows of entropy generated more and more complexity, then life, then intelligence. And now some of this atoms are arguing on a message board.

 

[Argonia]

I thought that was Donald Rumsfeld, hash tag

 

[hash tag]

From the last chapter of this Dr. Rebecca Smethurst
Either way, I'm sure Dr Becky is much nicer

 

[Aladdin]

There are the things we know that we know.
There are the things that we know that we don't know.
There are the unknown unknowns then there are the unknown knows.
Dr Becky

Then there are the things we don't know that we know and the things we don't know that we don't know.

 

[hash tag]

Exactly. Just to add, the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn.

 

[teuchter]

And now some of this atoms are arguing on a message board.

I dispute this.

 

[A380]

I dispute this.

‘We are stardust
Billion year old carbon’

not you.

 

[WouldBe]

‘We are stardust
Billion year old carbon’

not you.

Stop having a go at Sas.