Big Bang Theory

@jonnythan Said
Very very few people understand that when scientists refer to the Big Bang, they are *not* talking about a single point mass exploding and populating the universe.

The "explosion" refers to spacetime itself. Instead of one tiny dot exploding into thousands of tiny dots on the surface of a balloon (a 2-d universe), imagine someone blowing up the balloon from the inside, making the universe itself (the surface of the balloon) grow.

@jonnythan Said
Very very few people understand that when scientists refer to the Big Bang, they are *not* talking about a single point mass exploding and populating the universe.

The "explosion" refers to spacetime itself. Instead of one tiny dot exploding into thousands of tiny dots on the surface of a balloon (a 2-d universe), imagine someone blowing up the balloon from the inside, making the universe itself (the surface of the balloon) grow and carry the thousands of tiny dots - which all started as a single infinitely tiny dot on an infinitely tiny balloon.

@angelcake Said
sorry but did u just say people think of the big bang as being flat?

@jonnythan Said
No, people think of the Big Bang as this tiny dot floating in a large, empty space exploding and filling the empty space with "stuff."

That's not the case.

There was no empty space before the Big Bang. The Big Bang included *space itself* expanding from a singularity along with the matter contained within it.

@jmo Said
That doesnt really answer my question...i mean the all the evidence show that it's an ongoing thing (like the fact that the universe is red shows it's expanding and all that boring crap they teach in physics).

Im more concerned with people's beliefs concerning it than the actualy facts. Perhaps this should be posted in the philosophy section.

@jonnythan Said
Forgive me, I was trying to interject some reality of what the Big Bang is before people started talking about it.

We basically "know" what the universe was like starting with a few seconds after the Big Bang. We don't really "know" what it was like before that. We only have guesses like the Big Bang. We don't really know why matter is distributed the way it is, or why background radiation is so uniform when the matter distribution is not, etc. The "starting parameters" of the universe are largely unknown, and that's apparently what we're really trying to figure out at the moment.

I'm not sure you can argue with the apparent fact that there was a "big bang" of sorts, but we can argue indefinitely about whether the universe started as an actual singularity, whether it will return to one, etc.

I personally think we're a long way away from knowing what happens to the laws of physics when approaching a singularity.

I'm not sure what you mean by "beliefs" concerning the theory.

Quote:
Very very few people understand that when scientists refer to the Big Bang

@chaski Said
the theory: very cool...the idea that if you could travel far enough and fast enough out beyond the universe, you could turn around and see it (the big bang)...sort of..very cool.

@jonnythan Said
That's not at all true. The Big Bang theory specifically prohibits that kind of observation. It's physically and logically impossible because there is no universe "outside" our universe.

@chaski Said
sorry...within the universe, but fast enough to get beyond light....

sure, you cannot exceed the speed of light (in a "foot race sneario" ), but it is not illogical to think that by way of time-space distortions and or alternate universes or demensions, that you could get out beyond the light from the big bang, and see it...

@jonnythan Said
No, it's not remotely logical. It's completely illogical.

No space existed that was devoid of light from the Big Bang. The entirety of the universe was filled with light and energy. As the universe rapidly expanded, there was literally nowhere a particle could possibly exist without being literally awash in other particles and electromagnetic waves.

That's what I'm trying to get at. The entirety of the physical universe is included in the Big Bang.