Wiccan_Child
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- Mar 21, 2005
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The singularity is the moment we arbitrarily define as t = 0. t = 10[sup]-43[/sup] s is a length of time after that moment.Okay, I understand better now why you say we don't know about a beginning. But I'm going to try once more on this:
How do you measure the time starting from a present tense verb like "existing"? It doesn't indicate any point from which to measure.
Also, if we subtract a number from itself we get 0. How can t = 10[sup]-43[/sup] be even theoretically meaningful if t = 0 is not theoretically meaningful?
The point of the Big Bang theory is that it posits the existence of this singularity in space, time, matter, and energy, an infinitely small, infinitely dense, point of spacetime. It also posits that this region of spacetime has been expanding for 13.5 billion years, from its initial singularity to its current state. This ongoing process is the Big Bang. There is also good empirical evidence that allows us to better understand exactly how fast this expansion occurred (e.g., there was the 'Inflationary Period'), and so refine this basic idea.
From these theoretical premises, we can use our theories (QM & GR) to model what would happen - and it turns out that, prior to 10[sup]-43[/sup] seconds after the singularity began to expand, our theories just don't cut it. After that moment, the universe was big enough and cool enough to conform to modelling.
So the Big Bang theory is a mathematical model we can use to understand what the universe was like when it was very small. We posit the existence of a singularity, arbitrarily designate it as t = 0, and measure time thusly. However, the evidence just points to the singularity's existence - not to its origins.
It's like the theory of evolution. Evolution posits the existence of a single common ancestor, but it doesn't say where that ancestor came from. Later, we devised abiogenesis to explain that ancestor. Similarly, the Big Bang posits the existence of the singularity - but that doesn't mean there wasn't anything before it.
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