The big bang? Where is the flaw in the way I reasons?

Question

At the moment of the big bang, the escape velocity was more than the speed of light. No matter can go faster than the speed of light. (to accelerate one atom to a speed faster than light, you need an infinite amount of energy.) So, the big bang is impossible?

sorry about the "s" after :reason.

Answer 1

Inflation postulates space expanded faster than c, during the initial moments of the big bang. In addition, there may not have been any mass at the beginning--perhaps only massless energy. Matter domination (quarks dropping out into protons, neutrons, and electrons) did not occur for the first hundred thousand years. There may not have been any gravitational pull to counteract at that stage.

Gravity itself as a force did not decouple from the other fundamental forces in the early stages of the universe--so even if there had been mass, there would have been no gravitational force to act upon it.

Lots of potential flaws in your reasoning.

Information cannot exceed c, but actually we have exceeded c in our labs. With the uniform expansion of space in the initial moments of the hot inflationary big bang, there may have been no information exceeding c, even if the universe itself did.

As for christian mythology, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was void, and without form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." What does "void and without form" mean? Round? How could the earth have been round if it was without form?

I like to interpret this passage as "heaven" being energy, and "earth" being matter. Energy was created, then matter, and the entire universe remained dark until the era of recombination, some 300,000 years after the big bang. (See Timeline below). It is obvious any absolutely literal interpretation of this passage is clearly in error. I wouldn't give even this generous scientific interpretation great credence, but it is far superior to the interpretation our universe is a mere 6000 years old based on ancient geneologies.

Answer 2

I am not aware that the speed of light is affected by gravitational fields. The direction of travel of photons is affected when they pass near large bodies of matter but we cannot be sure that gravitational fields actually exist. Sir Isaac Newton could be wrong.

Acceleration is the difference in the changing relative positions of two objects. It says nothing about a third or fourth object. Consider this scenario. A train is moving west at noon. Therefore, to anyone on the train, the sun appears directly overhead. The speed of the train is exactly equal to the rotational "velocity" of the Earth. After ten hours, the sun is still directly overhead so the train is motionless in relation to the sun.

Stretch your immagination to accept that this is a mighty amazing train that accelerates up to a "velocity" of two-thirds the speed of light. Let's call it "Train A". It has a sister train called "Train B' that can travel equally fast. If both trains start in Toledo and Train B accelerates to two-thirds the speed of light but is moving east, how fast is Train B moving in relation to Train A?

What we think we know about the Big Bang is that there appears to be a general pattern of movement of many objects away from some central point. We do not know these things:

Is this point really at the center of all matter or is it just at the center of what we percieve? Could the universe be so large that this point is really near a corner of the universe?

If this is a central point for all of the universe and at a given moment in time all matter began to move away from that central point, which bit of matter is farthest away and what is the rate of decelleration of that bit of matter?

If we had that answer, we could also determine the exact moment in time that the Big Bang began. Without this data, we know very little about the Big Bang. More holes in the Big Bang:

We do not know if the motion we observe began from a central point of compressed matter or if objects were in random positions and motionless or in random patterns of motion before some catastrophic event occurred at the central point that began pushing matter away from the central point.

We do not know if the universe is a million times larger than any current guess. We do not know if there are a million other "central" points that could each be surrounded by a "mini universe" that is expanding out from that "central" point or, for that matter, contracting back toward that central point. Perhaps the universe is moving in a billion patterns of waves like those made by dropping a stone into a lake only three dimensional or... five dimensional.

We do not know if, after we split neutrons, we will find particles bound together that we can subsequently split and if those individual particles can be split. Is there really an end to this trail of split particles yeilding ever smaller bundles of particles? We always think there will be an end as though these passages into subatomic space are written in a number of chapters like a novel.

Answer 3

Why do you feel the need to claim that the escape velocity was more that the speed of light? The big bang hypothesis comes from the observation that everything is moving apart. Logically they were closer together in the past. That much is known. If your argument is with the inflation hypothesis then find a physicist.

Light moves within space. Light has a speed limit. I don't remember there being a speed limit on space.

Answer 4

Yes the big bang is totally feasible.... Einstein's special theory of relativity does say matter and light cannot exceed the speed of light, alright. But it does not put a limit on the rate the universe can expand. Because the the fabric of space time expanded faster than the speed of light, it pulled everything inside right along with it. I believe this only occured for less than ten-millionths of a second or so. No one knows what happened.in the initial few nanoseconds preceding this.

Answer 5

Have you ever seen a bomb explode... what happens to the escape velocity then? The bomb simply explodes sending the debris in all directions. At the time of triggering of the bomb... the explosive power subordinates the escape velocity. The bomb simply explodes...

When the big bang occurs... the size of the whole Cosmos is just the size of half a thumb. This cluster of pure energy... the combined force of all purified souls atmans in the Cosmos is what we know as God Almighty. This colossal power unable to contain itself in such a small volume for long explodes causing a big bang... the start of a new cosmos... a new journey!

This conception of the big bang theory has been made explicitly clear in Bhagavad Gita... the sacred doctrine given to mankind by Lord Krishna in Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism is one document... the knower of which becomes the knower of all!

The power of the explosion of a big bang is beyond the comprehension of human beings. This massive power that cannot be subordinated by any escape velocity results in all souls atmans in the Cosmos spreading out at unimaginable speeds. This gives rise to the formation of a new cosmos... new life cycles for every soul atman contained within.

This also confirms the theory that God is everywhere. All souls’ atmans being God Almighty in minuscule form are existent in the whole of Cosmos. More on Big Bang theory - http://www.godrealized.com/bigbangtheory.html

Answer 6

When the universe started there was no gravity so escape velocity was not necessary.
The inflationary universe was impossible for the reasons you state.
The universe accelerated for the first thirty-billionths of a second from zero to the speed of light It expanded radially at "C" from then on.

Answer 7

not necessarily because they traced it down to that spilt second where something huge happened. Big bang theory isn't impossible if it was then the scientists wouldn't even consider it. And im sure something amazing could happen and cause something to go faster than the speed of light we just haven't figured it out yet. I mean come on think about it, it must have been pretty amazing to create all this. (also quick note on the christianity religon not accepting this i don't really understand because it never disproves god, for all we know god is the one who caused the big bang..)

Answer 8

There is a very simple way to put this, without explaining it big.

Rule: "Nothing can travel Faster than the Speed of Light."

That's exactly what happend. The vacuum of space, the nothingness, traveled faster than the speed of light. Not any actual material.

Answer 9

Physical laws, like the law of gravity, aren't written quite so immutably in stone as that.

Physicists observe consistencies in the behavior of matter and energy. They give them names and call them laws.

However, with further observation it is always possible that new situations will be discovered in which the previously declared laws will not apply or will not apply in quite the same way.

A lot of classical physical laws, for example, had to be revised when it became possible to study quantum behavior.

The moment of the big bang obviously involved some very exceptional circumstances. As far as I know, it's completely impossible to study the nature of those circumstances directly.

I believe it's considered reasonable to assume that the laws of phsysics as we observe them under current conditions were not operating then, or at least not in the same way.

Not that I study this stuff or anything, that's just what I heard.

Answer 10

The speed of light the universe and the concept that the universe is expanding at a certain rate are independent. Think of the universe as a balloon as it expands. the rate at which light can travel on the surface of this expanding balloon is fixed at c. However, the rate at which the balloon is being inflated is a different matter altogether. There is a maximum speed *in* the universe and it is the speed of light. However, there's no known maximum at the rate at which the universe itself can expand, if that makes anymore sense.