what size did the universe expand to in the first few seconds in the big bang theory?

Question

i know a few seconds is a long time in terms of the universe expanding, but i just want an example and the tiny amount of seconds it took to go from the size of a ......... to the size of a .......... if you get me? i would just like to know so i could go, wow. e.g from a tennis ball to the size of the sun. but a gd fact please
thanks

Answer 1

The inflationary epoch was an incredibly short amount of time (in the magnitude of 10e-32 to 33 seconds) after the big bang.

It was the expansion of the spacetime fabric, not that of matter or energy. space itself was expanding (at speeds astronomically greater than that of light), and since general relativity does have a limit as to how fast space can expand, this is possible.

It is thought to have been triggered by some kind of phase transistion that was preceded by the even shorter amout of time (10e-35 seconds) when all four fundamental forces were united.

This idea of rapid inflation explains many different properties of our universe that are otherwise difficult to explain. Of couse, scientists are still working on the details, and once we learn more about dark energy and quantum gravity, much more clearer picture of how universe began is sure to follow.

Answer 2

i dont personally know the exact answer to this question, but they think it expanded faster than the speed of light for a few trillionths of a second.

matter cannot go faster than the speed of light, so some people would think this is impossible. but the big bang was all energy, no matter, matter formed later when the energy cooled. and its also possible because the laws of physics were different back then. the 4 main forces we have now were merged into one single super force back then, so the laws of physics were quite different.

but if i had to take a guess, i would say that in a few seconds space (not matter or energy, but the area it all fits into. space is an actual thing and it was created by the big bang.) went from not existing to being the size of a galaxy.

remember thats just my guess, i could be completely wrong.

and just so u know, steve doesnt have the right speed of light there. the speed of light is 186,000 MILES /second.

i would have to agree with the dude below me, we cant accurately say the time it expanded in a few seconds. in a few thousand years, yea sure we can. but for us to know within a few seconds we have to take into account some of the following things:

1. how far space extends. we dont even know how far matter extends, so well probably never know that.

2. if the acceleration of the unvierse is new, or if it has gained power or lost power.

3. if we knew the answer to #2 we would still need to know how fast it originally expanded and for how long.

and when your dealing with speeds greater than the speed of light just a tiny mis calculation can spiral out of control if applied over a few years time to give you an answer that could be lightyears off. so the best that scientists can do is give people a well educated guess. my estimate, im sad to say, is probably not very accurate.

Answer 3

There is a way to work it out.

When the Universe was very small it was all at the same temperature. Like a glass of water.

But as it got bigger some ripples or eddies started to appear (like in a pan of boiling water).

And since the Universe was expanding very quickly bits of the Universe ended up hotter and colder than each other.

You can see this by looking at the background microwave radiation of the Universe which still has the patterns in it that were originally set early in the Universe.

Now this is then hard to sort out but we can assume that since the Universe is generally the same temperature then the size of the Universe when it condensed was small.

What was that size? 1035 meters in width from one source.

Answer 4

As it happens, this Big Bang Theory happened a long time ago, and is just a theory that attempts to explain what might have occurred. At the time of the Big Bang (I am not sure if it happened on a Tuesday, or a Thursday) you might notice that there were no humans alive to take note of the action. Pencils, ball point pens, and pads of writing paper had not been invented yet, so no detailed notes were taken and handed down from generation to generation for us to check out later on (like today, to answer this question). Regretably it is impossible to respond to your question with good facts as you request because all of this talk is just conjecture, and some fairly well developed theories. Working the math of Universe Expansion backwards it is possible to arrive at the approximate point in time when this mightr have occurred. However, those calculations are only within plus or minus 1000 years. So, it would be totally a waste of time to consider one or two seconds of expansion when the time of the event could be off by as much as 1000 years +/- in the quoted 4.5 to 5 Billion Years ago that Earth was formed, or the 13.7 Billion Years of age of most of the other objects in space.

Answer 5

It expanded at the speed of light.
186000 ft / second.