just after the big bang?

Question

I am puzzled by the concept of the big bang. Let me ask 3 questions.
1. Let's say at 1 million years after the big bang, what was the size of the universe? I presume that it was "smaller." If i were alive then would distance "feel" the same as today? I would assume that a mile back then would be "less" than today but could I PERCEIVE that difference since everything would be "scaled" to a smaller universe??
2 Did the universe occur "everywhere", ie. come into existence, at once? In other words, did the furthest matter form at the same time as the Earth's matter? If so, did it form at its current location or did it migrate there over the eons? I am trying to parse the difference between "true" distance between points in space vs. distance as a result of expansion of matter within the universe as a result of space itself expanding.
3. Is the universe expanding into the 5th dimension since there is no "center" to this expansion and expansion is occurring to everything everywhere?

Answer 1

Remember that the further away we look in distance, the further back we look in time, because we are looking at the light that is reaching us from those distances after having had to travel through both space and time. Whenever you look away from yourself in space, you are also looking back in time, although at very short distances, such as the distance across a living room, the lag is not obvious to us. Ther are also relatavistic effects to take into account, although at slow speeds, these are also not immediately apparent. There is no constant frame of reference, and the Newtonian concepts of absolute space and absolute time are not really valid at the scales you are thinking about.

You can think of the expanding universe by using the analogy of dots drawn on a balloon. As the balloon expands, all of the dots get further apart because the substrate that they are contained in expands.

The book "The Fabric of the Cosmos" has some really good discussions on these topics. I highly recommend it.

Answer 2

1. Yes, the universe was smaller (in a way) but a mile was not shorter.
2. The whole universe, as we see today, was not created at an instant, however all matter did originate at once. Scientists believe that time made no sense at the origin of the universe, so it would seem that this is true.
3. No, technically, the universe already does exist in 5 dimensions. I think the most proved so far has been 11. I done think the universe is expanding in or out of dimensions, as this would cause the universe to collapse.

Answer 3

Hi. The maximum radius of the universe was 1 million lightyears 1 million years after the BB. Yes, the universe seems to have occurred everywhere at one time. Think of a cloud condensing. The universe is not clearly understood (with dark matter/energy and all) so I would not presume to guess.

Answer 4

1, The singularity expanded for 600,000 years before it cooled to the point where matter began to form, at that point the size was about the size of our galaxy. distance would have been the same as today.
2, Just about all matter appeared at the same time, the universe evolved over the billions of years it has existed, the consensus is that the universe has no centre and it appeared everywhere at the same time.
3, There are only four recognized dimensions, you are getting into the silly, String Theory, with multiple dimensions.

Answer 5

Watch "The Universe" on the History Channel and all will be explained. Or, buy the DVD set. You'll get better answers to your questions than from here.

The Big Bang is explained in tonight's show.

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=77605

Answer 6

Last segment of that tv show. Sumation of big bang aftermath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZqhqR5XKM

Another good place to discuss scientific ideas: http://www.mkaku.org/forums/

There's already a lot of long threads on this subject and many others.