What Happened Before the Big Bang?
Discussion
Galileo said:
Scientists who who are in the know, tell us that we only know what 5% of the universe is made of. The other 95% is going to be some really wierd stuff that will completely rewrite what we know. And when they do that, the answer to "what happened before?" will also be answered.
Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
Don't be a nob. The Flying Spaghetti Monster's not invisible. Otherwise how would we know how to paint the saucy majesty of His noodly appendages?Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
crofty1984 said:
Galileo said:
Scientists who who are in the know, tell us that we only know what 5% of the universe is made of. The other 95% is going to be some really wierd stuff that will completely rewrite what we know. And when they do that, the answer to "what happened before?" will also be answered.
Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
Don't be a nob. The Flying Spaghetti Monster's not invisible. Otherwise how would we know how to paint the saucy majesty of His noodly appendages?Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
I think it's fairly safe to say that there's a lot more Physics left to understand. A lot of people thought the subject was pretty much done towards the end of the 19th century. Really, really, really wrong. Even fairly recently people seemed to think that a grand unifying theory was close. That is beginning to look pretty bloody wrong too.
So in case you weren't going to do Physics coz you were afraid all the Nobel prize opportunities were gone, have no fear. There are still the minor problems of "what the f
k does quantum mechanics mean?", "how on earth do QM and General Relativity join up?" and "Oops, we've overlooked 95% of the universe". You could also try "inflation; why?" because the current explanation is "it just did, OK?" is a little weak.
I sincerely hope we remain interested in these questions and collectively prepared to spend the vast sums of money required to build the accelerators and telescopes needed to get some data to work with. For the last few decades we've been long a lot of speculation and short empirical evidence.
So in case you weren't going to do Physics coz you were afraid all the Nobel prize opportunities were gone, have no fear. There are still the minor problems of "what the f
k does quantum mechanics mean?", "how on earth do QM and General Relativity join up?" and "Oops, we've overlooked 95% of the universe". You could also try "inflation; why?" because the current explanation is "it just did, OK?" is a little weak.I sincerely hope we remain interested in these questions and collectively prepared to spend the vast sums of money required to build the accelerators and telescopes needed to get some data to work with. For the last few decades we've been long a lot of speculation and short empirical evidence.
QuantumTokoloshi said:
crofty1984 said:
Galileo said:
Scientists who who are in the know, tell us that we only know what 5% of the universe is made of. The other 95% is going to be some really wierd stuff that will completely rewrite what we know. And when they do that, the answer to "what happened before?" will also be answered.
Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
Don't be a nob. The Flying Spaghetti Monster's not invisible. Otherwise how would we know how to paint the saucy majesty of His noodly appendages?Personally, my money's on the great Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster being involved.
ATG said:
I think it's fairly safe to say that there's a lot more Physics left to understand. A lot of people thought the subject was pretty much done towards the end of the 19th century. Really, really, really wrong. Even fairly recently people seemed to think that a grand unifying theory was close. That is beginning to look pretty bloody wrong too.
So in case you weren't going to do Physics coz you were afraid all the Nobel prize opportunities were gone, have no fear. There are still the minor problems of "what the fk does quantum mechanics mean?", "how on earth do QM and General Relativity join up?" and "Oops, we've overlooked 95% of the universe". You could also try "inflation; why?" because the current explanation is "it just did, OK?" is a little weak.
I sincerely hope we remain interested in these questions and collectively prepared to spend the vast sums of money required to build the accelerators and telescopes needed to get some data to work with. For the last few decades we've been long a lot of speculation and short empirical evidence.
Apologies for the duffer question, but if we know so little, why are people so sure for example that you can't go faster than light? It's just a theory that you can't after all isn't it? A theory can be proved wrong.So in case you weren't going to do Physics coz you were afraid all the Nobel prize opportunities were gone, have no fear. There are still the minor problems of "what the f
k does quantum mechanics mean?", "how on earth do QM and General Relativity join up?" and "Oops, we've overlooked 95% of the universe". You could also try "inflation; why?" because the current explanation is "it just did, OK?" is a little weak.I sincerely hope we remain interested in these questions and collectively prepared to spend the vast sums of money required to build the accelerators and telescopes needed to get some data to work with. For the last few decades we've been long a lot of speculation and short empirical evidence.
AshVX220 said:
Apologies for the duffer question, but if we know so little, why are people so sure for example that you can't go faster than light? It's just a theory that you can't after all isn't it? A theory can be proved wrong.
This is true a theory can be proven wrong, however the speed limit of C is fairly robust, to go faster you'll need to cheat and use some kind of wormhole/multi-dimensional system but it gets all a bit Star Trek. There are particles that are observed to be moving through these dimensions (they disappear and reappear elsewhere), the mechanism by which this works is not known.The big bang wasn't an explosion as often depicted, you had a singularity that contained the entire universe, imagine a black hole that swallowed everything, all planets, stars, galaxies, the lot, everything, all squashed down to nothing. In this state time stops, nothing moves. The clock started when something broke loose and everything spilled out, as all that stuff became less compacted matter and stars started to appear. Picture the TARDIS from Dr. Who, outside we see a stationary Police box, inside there is an ever expanding universe. You could spend 10 minutes or a 1000 years outside the box and it could be instant or a million years inside, they're using independent clocks.
This is why there is no 'before' as you'd have to be outside the universe for a clock to be running, but it would be a different clock, running at a different speed with a different start point.
I'm sure, although there's no direct evidence for it yet that within a universe gravity creates black holes, they suck in matter and energy and anchor galaxies, but if they get sufficiently big they become too big for the space / dimensions to cope with and they splurge all their contents out somewhere else, that splurging is a 'big bang' and another universe is created in a new set of dimensions, each with their own unique properties. Some go on to creating galaxies, others do nothing, some expand for ever and others collapse. There is no determinable beginning to this bubbling of universes, it's just stuck in a loop. If something ultimately discovers that all of this exists inside something than that will exist inside something else which will exist inside something else. It's unending, there's no way to determine how 'big' it all is, and there's no point to it, it just is.
qube_TA said:
This is true a theory can be proven wrong, however the speed limit of C is fairly robust, to go faster you'll need to cheat and use some kind of wormhole/multi-dimensional system but it gets all a bit Star Trek.
Sorry to be pedantic but should that be to get from 'a' to 'b' in a shorter time span, rather than actually going 'faster' than the speed of light?AshVX220 said:
Apologies for the duffer question, but if we know so little, why are people so sure for example that you can't go faster than light? It's just a theory that you can't after all isn't it? A theory can be proved wrong.
The defining characteristic of a scientific theory is that it is falsifiable.That doesn't mean to say it will be falsified - just that it can be in light of new evidence.
AA999 said:
qube_TA said:
This is true a theory can be proven wrong, however the speed limit of C is fairly robust, to go faster you'll need to cheat and use some kind of wormhole/multi-dimensional system but it gets all a bit Star Trek.
Sorry to be pedantic but should that be to get from 'a' to 'b' in a shorter time span, rather than actually going 'faster' than the speed of light?Cosmology, string theory and the multiverse
http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/component/courses/?view=c...
String theory and primordial cosmology
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.0101.pdf
Toaster said:
Cosmology, string theory and the multiverse
http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/component/courses/?view=c...
String theory and primordial cosmology
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.0101.pdf
Why does "string theory" always come up in these sort of topics? http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/component/courses/?view=c...
String theory and primordial cosmology
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.0101.pdf
Its widely regarded as utter b
ks.Didnt the bare naked ladies already answer this?
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. wait
The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang! hey
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. wait
The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang! hey
Prof Prolapse said:
Hoofy read this;
I promise it's a well written book which doesn't put you to sleep, and it summarises the state of understanding very well.
You may however be dissapointed to learn that the answer to your specific question is pretty short... And is included in the title...
Is it God? I promise it's a well written book which doesn't put you to sleep, and it summarises the state of understanding very well.
You may however be dissapointed to learn that the answer to your specific question is pretty short... And is included in the title...
Is it?
No, really, is it?
It's got to be, surely?
It's the only thing that makes any sense.
It's all mind bending stuff when you actually try to comprehend what is and has been. Almost wish I had a time machine to either go back or forward to see what the answer is but then that opens another can of worms in itself, is time travel even possible?
Unfortunately in our life time we will probably never know and that in itself is a depressing look into how short our time on earth is in the grand scheme of things!
Unfortunately in our life time we will probably never know and that in itself is a depressing look into how short our time on earth is in the grand scheme of things!
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