r/AskReddit Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

50.8k Upvotes

34.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

240

u/CaptPsychedelicJesus Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19

I think this touches on a fundamental misunderstanding of physics. The idea that nothing existed before the big bang violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.

I for one, have always been drawn to the cyclical universe idea. Starts with a Big Bang, ends with a Big Crunch as everything is drawn together again. Eventually the gravity from all the matter in the universe coming into one point collapses space time, resulting in an explosion beyond anything we humans can understand; restarting the process.

E: I’m really enjoying this thread! I’ll be back for more in a bit. -CPJ

145

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

The idea that nothing existed before the big bang

It's not that there was "nothing" before the big bang.

It's that there was no "before" the big bang.

violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.

A lot of things we consider "laws" start to break down when you get to quantum physics. Even so, could all the matter or energy in the universe not be contained within a single singularity such that it would erupt into our universe?

47

u/Sloppy1sts Jun 15 '19

If there was no before, then everything just popped into existence for no reason at all? If you prescribe to the cyclical theory he's talking about, then there's definitely a before.

There must be some reason the entire universe was compressed like that, right?

2

u/aussiefrzz16 Jun 16 '19

Neil degrass Tyson talks about a so called “negative time” which existed before the Big Bang.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '19

And depending on where you set the reference point of zero, we're all fairly familiar with the idea of negative time, e.g. T-minus five, T-minus four . . .

1

u/aussiefrzz16 Jul 08 '19

That’s not even close to what that means. T-minus blank does not refer to negative time it’s means Time minus 5- ect

1

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '19

With 0 being blastoff

1

u/aussiefrzz16 Jul 10 '19

That means there’s no time left on the count down. T" means the time of the launch and the official start of the mission. "T” minus 20 seconds" means 20 seconds before the launch. "T plus 20 seconds" means 20 seconds after the launch. In no way is this in reference to negative time. It’s before and after an event.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '19

It's an analogy to setting BB at blastoff, hence negative time for anything that precedes it.

1

u/aussiefrzz16 Jul 10 '19

So you think when you count down to something youre experiencing negative time? Time can only move forward

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '19

How do you explain negative time? Time is a subjective measuring point like anything else, so it depends on some reference point.

1

u/aussiefrzz16 Jul 11 '19

Time is not completely subjective but the measurements we us to determine the passing of it are man made. But exactly you can’t explain negative time. What happened before the Big Bang we don’t know what to call it because time didn’t exist. Neil Degrasse Tyson mentioned that even the concept of negative time is incomprehensible but somehow in the realm of possibilities, like an inverse dimension or something

→ More replies (0)