Re: [asa] big bang question ... and the start of matter...

Quoting "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>:

> A question about the big bang.
> As I understand it, at the moment 'before' the big bang, there was
> nothing material- not even an electron. After the big-bang, energy
> started converting to matter, according to
>
> E=MC^2
>
> Question- how can this equation balance at the very start, where M
> approaches 0? You have M approaches zero on the right side of the
> equation, and E approaching infinity on the left, correct? C is just a
> (relatively small) constant, so it can't have much of any effect. I'm
> wondering how this equation works, with the left side approaching
> infinity and the right approaching zero; but it is balanced...?
>
> I understand that the theory breaks down as you get closer to the start
> of the big bang- any idea how close you can get to the big bang before
> breaks-how many atoms exist?
>
> ...Bernie

Does energy (E) really approach infinity as t goes to zero? Or is it rather
that, playing time backwards, we see the matter/energy of the universe
compressed into a smaller and smaller space? --hence higher matter/energy
"density". As I understand it, we're spreading out and cooling off, but that
doesn't mean energy is or ever was lost (courtesy of first law) -- just
degrading to less usable energy (courtesy of second law).

Also, I don't think there is any good way to conceive of "before" on the big
bang since space, along with time itself also expanded and came into being at
that point. If space, time, and even matter are in some way interconnected and
won't exist independently of the others (as Einstein thought), then there would
be no temporal "other side" for us to hearken back to with the phrase "before
the singularity". Perhaps physicists simply have an eternity along a
logarithmic type scale to explore (10^-x) where x just keeps getting infinitely
bigger, and nucleosynthesis simply begins a minute or so after all these
logarithmic epochs have already had their sub-picosecond style fun.

Apparently, however, the Planck time limit ruins the temporal fun when x gets
too big (~10^-43) and science just throws up its hands. For now.

--Merv

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Received on Mon May 5 18:01:10 2008