2006-07-04 17:23:22 · 25 answers · asked by brightblueday 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Your question is a common one, but unfortunately it's not an easy one to answer because it doesn't really make sense as far as the theory is concerned.
The "big bang" event is predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. This theory is concerned with distance and time, and it says that every place is space and event in time can be described together as a smooth surface... Imagine an infinite table-top...
Now, as a general rule, this smooth surface shouldn't have any edges... In other words, every position in space should have some places around it, and every event in time should have a "before" and an "after" associated with it.
Stephen Hawking (and a few others)'s contribution to the study of general relativity was to show that, under some circumstances, the giant table CAN have edges. In 'relativity' lingo we call the table-top "space-time" --since it's 4-dimentional and made out of space and time dimensions-- and we call the edge a "singularity".
So, one specific type of singularity is the "Big Bang" that you are asking about. The way this 'edge' is oriented on the 'table' means that asking "what happened before the big bang" is equivalent to asking "what object on the table is to the right of the far-right edge of the table"... the answer is, in short, that nothing can be there, since that is where the table ends.
I'm sorry if my explanation is confusing. The explanation i'm trying to give is a very visual one, and I'm afraid that without diagrams for me to point to, that all of this is a little opaque. Good luck, though.
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P.S. a wikipedia article i was just reading has an interesting quote from stephen hawking, as he was addressing the question you asked, which is along the same lines as the explanation i just tried to give. His metaphor is that asking what came before the big bang is like asking what is north of the north pole. Oh, what a clever guy!
2006-07-04 19:37:32 · answer #1 · answered by BenTippett 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you mean before all 23 or 24 Big Bangs and Big Crushes then God.
2006-07-04 18:39:26 · answer #2 · answered by Eric X 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Pre-Big Bang Show!!!!
2006-07-04 17:29:11 · answer #3 · answered by Terisu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Before the big bang, the universe was as it is now.
2006-07-04 20:09:30 · answer #4 · answered by lincseagles 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a theory suggests that what happened before the "big bang" was the "big crunch" in which a previous universe expanded to critical mass, then collapsed onto itself, causing a massive explosion outward. If this is true, our universe naturally expands then collapses, and everything starts over again. This could be the 120000 time ive typed this message.
2006-07-04 18:26:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no individual knows. that is problematic even to make a wager. the version between technological expertise and faith is that scientists (genuine ones besides) are trustworthy about what they don't understand. clinical expertise is complete of holes, in simple terms by using its very nature, The extra we study, the extra questions we ask, so the ratio between what all of us understand and what we would want to carry close continues to be style of consistent over the years. the tremendous Bang is a theory that appears to be like pointed to by using assistance we convey mutually from astronomy. each and every thing interior the universe appears to be like travelling outwards from one factor. by using the speed and distance we are able to calculate the time, and each and every thing seems to have come from this one tiny factor. So astro-physicists got here up with a theory that links each and each and every of the assistance mutually (or maximum of it), that each and each and every one the count interior the universe got here from this one factor all those billions of years in the past. yet what the universe become like earlier that, you won't be able to even wager about it. there is one wager that the universe will enhance to a particular length, and then gravity will make it start up contracting back. and perchance that is going to all contract right into a 'singularity', which will reason yet another huge Bang and the cycle will start up back. Cool to imagine about, even if that is truly extra fable than technological expertise. One very old, time-venerated evidence of the existence of God is the 'First reason' argument. the idea is that that each and every thing has a reason, so there might want to be a 'first reason', and that is God. yet that argument has an same flaw because the tremendous Bang theory. If each and every thing has a reason then God does too. If each and every thing has a precedent, then what befell earlier God existed? (The theological answer is that God is eternal, meaning he's outside of time altogether, so words like 'earlier' and 'after' propose not something even as speaking about God's existence. yet of direction this does not fulfill an atheist or agnostic.)
2016-10-14 03:24:26 · answer #6 · answered by sharona 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Till now no one knows exactly what exits before the big bang. Thus it might be true that no one can answer this question.
2006-07-04 19:42:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure what was before the "Big Bang", but I know after it, a ciggarette is always good.
2006-07-04 17:27:15 · answer #8 · answered by Havahekuvaday 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
six small bangs when God created the world and on the 7th day God celebrated His holiday with Big Bang!
2006-07-04 17:30:17 · answer #9 · answered by itsme 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have to agree with Rebecca, God came b4 the big bang.
2006-07-04 17:30:01 · answer #10 · answered by blasted 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋