The big bang and traveling at the speed of light

[Orange Joe]

Again with the "I'm going to come to MMO-C and disprove decades of research" nonsense?

No, there is no center of the universe.

Ok point where the big bang happened. Is that better wording? I'm not trying to disprove anything I was merely asking a question.

[Gheld]

Ok point where the big bang happened. Is that better wording? I'm not trying to disprove anything I was merely asking a question.

individual points in space only exist for the purpose of establishing a frame of reference.

Thus if the entire universe all began at a single location there were no frames of reference at the time. It happened everywhere, and it happened nowhere.

[Dezerte]

If the big bang theory is correct there has to be a center.

Right, the 'singularity' would be the 'center' of the inflation. It might not be the center today as the inflation was not uniform, and we have no way of knowing where the current center of the universe is because we can't see any 'edge'.

[Orange Joe]

individual points in space only exist for the purpose of establishing a frame of reference.

Thus if the entire universe all began at a single location there were no frames of reference at the time. It happened everywhere, and it happened nowhere.

Right, the 'singularity' would be the 'center' of the inflation. It might not be the center today as the inflation was not uniform, and we have no way of knowing where the current center of the universe is because we can't see any 'edge'.

Thank you. Makes a lot more sense now.

[Deleted]

Thank you. Makes a lot more sense now.

I'm going to have to burst your bubble, sorry :/

1stly, Dezerte is not exactly correct, there is no edge to the universe (altough I don't think that he meant that seriously), there is also no center, each individual point that is possible in the universe is the centre, you are in the exact centre of the universe, but so is everybody else.

2ndly, don't try to make sense of the universe, there is none.

[Wikko]

Talking about the "edge" to the universe, what it be if you could be moving faster than the universe is expanding, and yes I know it's not possible, but if you could, would there be some kind of a barrier that would not let you go anywhere or what?

[Nilinor]

Talking about the "edge" to the universe, what it be if you could be moving faster than the universe is expanding, and yes I know it's not possible, but if you could, would there be some kind of a barrier that would not let you go anywhere or what?

One of the current working theories (one which I accept) is that the universe is some kind of expanding mobius strip, so if you did find a way to go faster than the expansion, you would just end up where you are starting.

[Tradewind]

Talking about the "edge" to the universe, what it be if you could be moving faster than the universe is expanding, and yes I know it's not possible, but if you could, would there be some kind of a barrier that would not let you go anywhere or what?

Good question, but my belief is that there is a shrinking negative space beyond the physical universe. Negative space not necessarily being nothing, it's an absence of something but is therefore still a thing. Just a negative thing. It's about the only way my brain can handle entropy right now.

[Nilinor]

Good question, but my belief is that there is a shrinking negative space beyond the physical universe. Negative space not necessarily being nothing, it's an absence of something but is therefore still a thing. Just a negative thing. It's about the only way my brain can handle entropy right now.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19117...t-warning.html

If you want a bad case of existentialism :P

[Elegiac]

I question the Big Bang, honestly. I've heard other theories and I'm not ruling any of them out, considered we don't truly know what happened or why.

Yes, because you hearing about alternative theories totally disproves the fact that all of the current observational evidence points to the Big Bang.

Armchair physics at its finest.

[andrewdunn222]

the easiest answer to the center of the the universe is you. the center would be where the observer is and would be the center of the observable universe. the age of the universe is estimated based on the observable universe assuming that is all in existence, technically it could be older. you have to remember that the big bang happened everywhere at the same time. all of existence was condensed in a single point no bigger than an atom. the easiest way to describe why galaxies father away seem to be traveling fast would be to put a couple of balls on some rubber tubing and mark the center one. when you stretch the rubber the balls furthest away would move faster relative to the marked ball.

[Waniou]

I never said that it didn't/couldn't of happened, or that other theories disprove it...I said I question it and that I'm not ruling out the other theories.

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I question everything UNTIL it's 100% fact/proven.

I wish I didn't need to keep stating this every time science is brought up, but absolutely nothing in science is 100% fact or proven. There's always error and being open to question. Always. Even if it's an extremely miniscule error, or the chance of it being wrong is extremely low, it's always there and is only ever, at best, 99.999999999999% fact or proven.

With that said. There are no other theories besides the Big Bang.

[Waniou]

There are other theories, they just are either not as popular and therefore not as widely heard about, or they just aren't accepted because....well, people don't like to accept something that's different, when we have something that makes sense for right now (has happened many times, lol)

And that's the main thing - the Big Bang is what makes sense now. Who's to say in x number of years we'll come up with another theory because we have better telescopes or better technology. The point is, the Big Bang is not yet proven, but it's the logical solution based on the info we have right now....but that doesn't mean it IS what happened.

You're right, it doesn't mean that it's definitely absolutely right, but until we come up with a theory that better explains the evidence, there's no reason to say "hey let's pretend it isn't real". The big bang theory explains all the evidence, makes accurate predictions and it's pretty damn unlikely it'll be completely overturned.

And no, there are no other competing theories that adequately explain the data available, or that have make accurate, testable predictions.

[Waniou]

I'm not pretending it's not real or implying that is, I'm just open to more theories and have the understanding that with science, everything could change, especially with time and better minds/technology.

I also do remember a couple different theories on the TV show "Through the Wormhole". I believe one still used the Big Bang scenario, but further went on to explain that the universe was like that of a beating heart, in which it shoots out and the retracts back in and starts all over again.

I'd have to find the exact episode name if you were interested in watching it or having it explained in better detail than I'm able to.

Sounds like effectively the endless cycle of big bang/big crunches, if I understand correctly? In short, the universe expands from a big bang, acceleration decreases, then gravitational forces pull the universe back into a singularity, which starts a new big bang and the cycle repeats endless. Provided I understand correctly. As far as I'm aware though, we know the universe's expansion is greater than the gravitational force of the mass of the universe, which means that it's just going to expand endlessly and not contract back down.

[Adam Jensen]

If the big bang theory is correct there has to be a center.

Only if you see it as an explosion. It is not. It is an expansion at every point in space. Thus every point becomes the center.

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I question the Big Bang, honestly. I've heard other theories and I'm not ruling any of them out, considered we don't truly know what happened or why.

The thing is though, the Big Bang is the current prevailing theory because it fits most of the observational evidence we have so far.

Sure, there are questions, no theory is perfect, but the Big Bang is the best fit atm.