Russel Stannard on the Big Bang

[Asmodean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZFEayYlQ0U&feature=player_embedded


In the video, he raises a rather interesting point or two as to why "what caused the Big Bang?" is an unanswerable question.

Overall, I like the way he explains things in words most people can - or at least should - understand where I myself would be long-since deep into advanced physics...

...Thought I'd share.

[McQ]

I like this, and the other videos he has here. I had never seen them before. Very nice, bite-sized chunks, easy to watch or listen to without feeling like your in for a one hour lecture. Thanks for sharing this!

[Stevil]

I am unsure of why we need to go so far back to a point of singularity. A non three dimentional substance seems impossible to me. I doubt that there are points of singularity at the centre of black holes. Maybe our Universe compacted to the size of a golf ball, or the size of our moon or the size of our planet or the size of our sun, which would be all extremely small considering the amount of energy contained within.

I also struggle with the position that time did not exist prior to the big bang. We don't know this, we don't know what was around then.
Time is relative to each piece of energy/matter, time is not universal so it seems wrong to make a blanket statement to say that time didn't exist. My question would be, in relation to which fragment of energy did time not exist? We don't even know if all the energy within our Universe existed or not prior to the big bang.

It all leads to a description of what is nothing? If nothing is a quantum vacuum then time does exist, but is fragmentedand still relative.
It seems to me that space is eternal and is the uncased cause of everything, that existence is inevitable, and is happening all the time. There are likely to be an infinite amount of universes throughout infinite space. It's all very interesting, i wish i could know all that the scientists have worked out.

[McQ]

I am unsure of why we need to go so far back to a point of singularity. A non three dimentional substance seems impossible to me. I doubt that there are points of singularity at the centre of black holes. Maybe our Universe compacted to the size of a golf ball, or the size of our moon or the size of our planet or the size of our sun, which would be all extremely small considering the amount of energy contained within.

I also struggle with the position that time did not exist prior to the big bang. We don't know this, we don't know what was around then.
Time is relative to each piece of energy/matter, time is not universal so it seems wrong to make a blanket statement to say that time didn't exist. My question would be, in relation to which fragment of energy did time not exist? We don't even know if all the energy within our Universe existed or not prior to the big bang.

It all leads to a description of what is nothing? If nothing is a quantum vacuum then time does exist, but is fragmentedand still relative.
It seems to me that space is eternal and is the uncased cause of everything, that existence is inevitable, and is happening all the time. There are likely to be an infinite amount of universes throughout infinite space. It's all very interesting, i wish i could know all that the scientists have worked out.

Unfortunately, this type of discussion goes so far beyond most of our abilities that it's almost not worth having, because (at least speaking for myself) the only way it can be described is mathematically, and there are only a handful of people in the world who can handle it. But I guess the math says there was no time at that time.   !!!

[xSilverPhinx]

Thanks for adding the link, I watched the whole series and found it to be very enjoyable.

[Whitney]

time is not universal so it seems wrong to make a blanket statement to say that time didn't exist.

there are some who try to argue that time still doesn't exist and is an unnecessary concept.

I don't know why they argue that though...I have a book about it but haven't read it yet (and it may be above my head).

[Stevil]

Unfortunately, this type of discussion goes so far beyond most of our abilities that it's almost not worth having, because (at least speaking for myself) the only way it can be described is mathematically, and there are only a handful of people in the world who can handle it. But I guess the math says there was no time at that time.   !!!

Results of a quick search
http://www.universetoday.com/15051/thinking-about-time-before-the-big-bang/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7440217.stm
http://www.space.com/4019-glimpse-time-big-bang.html

[Asmodean]

I also struggle with the position that time did not exist prior to the big bang. We don't know this, we don't know what was around then.

Indeed, we do not know. However, if every piece of matter and energy we know (or suspect) to exist today or to have ever existed was indeed created in the Big Bang, then so was time. At least, time as in our dimension four. There may well be other concepts of time which can even accomodate a "before" the very birth of the Universe, but if this time is not pretty much linear (before followed by now followed by after), will all effects necessarilly have their respective causes?

[McQ]

Unfortunately, this type of discussion goes so far beyond most of our abilities that it's almost not worth having, because (at least speaking for myself) the only way it can be described is mathematically, and there are only a handful of people in the world who can handle it. But I guess the math says there was no time at that time.   !!!

Results of a quick search
http://www.universetoday.com/15051/thinking-about-time-before-the-big-bang/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7440217.stm
http://www.space.com/4019-glimpse-time-big-bang.html

Thanks for the links. I checked the first one and will take a look at the others today probably.