The Big Bang Theory....Simplified?

[#juan]

We've all heard of the Big Bang Theory of Cosmology. Since there was nobody around
at the time to witness this happening, there are a number of opposing arguments about
what actually happened.

First, I am not a physicist. I worked as a mechanical engineer for close to forty years and
that gets me a cup of coffee along with about three dollars depending where I'm buying.
I am an amateur astronomer and I've had an interest in cosmology for around thirty years.

My first thought about the big bang theory was that all the matter in the universe exploded
out of a single point, a singularity if you will, and expanded into the universe. It is all
still expanding, and has been for the last thirteen billion years or so. A physicist I talked
to reckoned it was more like a balloon being inflated and that every point on the surface
of that balloon was rushing away from every other point.

I'd like to get everyone's thoughts, all who are interested, on this subject. Just keep it
as simple as you can so I can keep up.

Cheers

 

[darkbeaver]

Redshift reality says no to expanding balloon universe.

 

[petros]

 

[darkbeaver]

Redshift is electrical density not distance, they say, I think.

 

[petros]

Dopple shifts are only in the eye of the observer.

 

[darkbeaver]

get to a designated eye wash and flush the dopplers out of the eye with clean distilled water, report the incident to your supervisor

 

[petros]

Becareful or you poked in the eye with a long skinny universe balloon.

 

[darkbeaver]

What does an expanding universe expand into?

 

[petros]

The same place it came from...nothing.

Outside of our universe there is no such thing as physics.

 

[#juan]

The same place it came from...nothing.

Outside of our universe there is no such thing as physics.

Out of curiosty I wonder where you got that little gem from. How would you even guess that ?

 

[petros]

Which gem? I've got plenty of gems. Some local from foreign.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Everything you ever wanted to know about cosmology: Curious About Astronomy? Cosmology and the Big Bang

 

[Just the Facts]

I think further study is required.

 

[Cliffy]

There is no matter, so what, if anything, is expanding? Matter depends on an observer who believes in the idea of matter. If there was no observer, the universe wouldn't exist. Physics is just the observer trying to prove his belief is valid.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

No matter? What's this desk I'm sitting at then?

It's space that's expanding, not matter. There's no evidence to suggest the universe wouldn't exist if there were no observer. Quantum theory is fully consistent with an objective reality that exists independently of anyone's or any thing's observation of it. There's a lot of New Age quantum quackery around that claims otherwise, but that's the fact. If you truly believe what you're claiming, I invite you to jump off the peak of my roof and believe away the existence of the rock garden you'll land in.

 

[Cliffy]

Tell that to these quantum physicists.

YouTube - BBC Horizon (2011) - What is Reality? (complete, uncut)

 

[petros]

It's space that's expanding, not matter.

I thought the universe was expanding into space.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Yeah, that's at least the third time you've posted that video recently. I invite you to tell it to the rocks in my garden. The video's an attempt to explain in ordinary words and concepts what quantum theory's about, and you really can't do it without the mathematics. What's clear from the video is that nobody really knows the ultimate nature of reality, and as the narrator says about 43 minutes in, if you think you understand, you probably don't.

I thought the universe was expanding into space.

No, it's not expanding into anything, the space and its contents are the universe, there's nothing to expand into but itself. But if it's infinite, it's also the same size it's always been, it can't get any bigger... See? Nobody understands this stuff. Infinity is full of paradox. Just consider something as simple as the integers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. There are infinitely many of them. Throw the odd numbers away, or multiply them all by 2, so you have 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. How many numbers do you have now? Same number as you started with, an infinite number of them. But there are orders of infinity too. In between any two integers is an infinite number of real numbers, so the number of reals is infinitely many times as large as the number of integers. The infinity of integers is the lowest order of infinity, called Aleph-null. The infinity of reals is called Aleph-one, which is also the number of points on a line or a surface. Aleph two is the number of different curves that can be drawn on a surface. There might be an infinite number of infinities too, though I haven't seen any claims that anyone knows what an aleph higher than two is.

 

[petros]

If you want to get into infinity that is a whole new thread and it has driven many a mathematician into the looney bin.

 

[darkbeaver]

The big bang satisfies the irrational human emotion for linear progressions and virtually nothing else.