The Big Bang

Great Debates
21

One thing I’ve had trouble trying to understand is the recent discovery that the expansion of the universe is currently accelerating.

Is the theory now that there was first a very quick expansion (big bang), some kind of slow down, then it started accelerating again?

Or is the current expansion somehow unrelated to the big bang?

Is it at all possible that the expansion has been accelerating right from the beginning?

I’m sure it’s probably clear that I know very little about this. Is it a totally wacky speculation that we are in essence still in a big bang that isn’t half over yet? By half over, I mean the “stuff” that has been “thrown” by the explosion is still being accelerated by the force of the explosion, and hasn’t begun to slow down. I guess the biggest problem with this theory is that I’m comparing the Big Bang to normal explosion, which is likely not a valid comparison.

22

Wally said:

So you’re saying that Alan Greenspan is really the Secret Master of the Universe?

Well, that explains a lot of things…

23

Do we know all the forces of nature?

So far we have 4.

Do we know all the fundamental particles and what governs them? Clearly not.

Theory! Theory! It’s only a theory! (Yes, David, I know what a theory is)

Theory does not equal truth.

Sometimes I just gotta laugh at human arrogance.

There’s always another beer.

24

“Just don’t try to tell me that the Universe’s owner’s manual was written in Hebrew and Greek, ifyouknowwhatImean.”

No, it was written in the Enochian alphabet.

25

I think this is a good opportunity to ask a few questions that have been bugging me.

**1.**Is space really nothing? Isn’t space quantized at a very small scale? Isn’t it bent by gravity? It seems to me that space is ‘real’ even if it’s not material or energetic, as opposed to simply being the absence of anything.

**2.**From where did the Big Bang happen? I’ve heard that the theory is that it occured due to a variation in an energy field or something. Said variations are necessary because of the Uncertainty Principle. Doesn’t that imply that there some ‘space’ or ‘universe’ existing from which the Big Bang is born. Maybe it’s something like the hypothetical 3-D universe that allows someone to view a boundless but finite 2-D spherical universe.

**3.**What is making the ‘nothingness’ of space expand. I figured it must be gravitational, but isn’t that repulsive? Wrong answer, I’m sure.

**4.**Do we know at what speed gravity acts? The speed of light?

**5.**If space really is quantized at a very small scale, when space expands, what expands exactly? Are there more quanta of space forming? If so, where would they form? If the distance between the quanta is simply increasing, how can it be an increase in any perceptible sense? Mmmh, not very clear. I’ll try that one again when I can word it better.

I can imagine I’m making a few of the more educated Dopers roll their eyes, please bear with me. Maybe my problem is just conceptual or semantic. If someone knows a good link, that’d be good too.

Oodles of thanks to anyone helping me out.

Only humans commit inhuman acts.