What Happened Before the Big Bang?

[DaveDash]

The antimatter from the Big Bang would have destroyed all the regular matter. This fact is well-known to physicists. As soon as the two are produced in the laboratory, they instantly come together and annihilate one another.

The Big Bang would have produced equal amounts of positive matter (matter) and negative matter (antimatter). But only small amounts of antimatter exist. There should be as much antimatter as matter—if the Big Bang was true.

Anti-matter only destroys matter if it comes into contact with it. Obviously some matter "won" which is why we are here today talking about it. This hardly disproves the big bang theory, because in fact the asymmetry condition we have only came about after the big bang.

The imbalance between matter and anti-matter was incredibly small, by the way. This process happened after the big bang, and it is known as The Sakharov Condition. Look it up.

We can measure back almost 13.7 billion years by the way, and we can tell emperically that the universe is expanding. We can also emperically tell was much hotter, smaller, and denser the further you go back into the past (ie the further out of the universe you look). We can actually see the surface of last scattering, which is when the universe shifted from being opaque like the sun and into the first atoms, which we can see.

[TG211]

I thought it was established nothing happened before big bang.

Nothing in this field of science can be "established". By nature, science always changes. We can at best get straws of what could have happened. And even that is not sure, hence the research continuing. I like that, striving for more knowledge !

There are several theories about the "Before", some kinda coeherent, others totally weird even their thinkers are not sure what they thought !!

[BogT]

I was always amazed that many people expect us to understand EVERYTHING. That would be gods place. We are surely not god, just a very intelligent mammal species. What we already achieved to know with our limited skill set is nearly unbelievable.

2x...

And everyone should remember that we are on this planet (in the presents form) for about 50.000 years, but we did not even had electricity until 100 years ago. Since then, we cracked the atom and its nucleus (QM), explained light and got the motion of the planets right (GR). If you are contemplating that, just think that we have the internet for only about 10-15 years. Can anyone still imagine a life without internet?! We may not know everything but we are great... Tonight I am going to raise a glass to the first monkey that decided to grow an opposable thumb and invest in a bigger brain rather then bigger fangs and longer claws.

===

No matter what, we will always have an horizon for our knowledge. Past that horizon, we can explain our ignorance through some metaphysical concepts. Today, the horizon touches the moment of big-bang. Tomorrow, who knows. You will always have a place for metaphysics, philosophy and religion. The only problem is when people cling to their metaphysics beliefs even after they are communally understood to be false. This problem will get larger and larger in the future as the physical understanding of the world will become harder and harder to be mastered by the public (ex: try to explain the disparity of matter and antimatter in the universe by some symmetry breaking mechanism and see where people stop following your reasonings; my bet, after the second phrase - you probably made the mistake of assuming that people know what antimatter means).

[PEMM]

Nothing in this field of science can be "established". By nature, science always changes. We can at best get straws of what could have happened. And even that is not sure, hence the research continuing. I like that, striving for more knowledge !

I was drunk when i wrote that post.

As for the theories about what was before; yeah there are few like the multiverse theory, but at present time it looks like its impossible to test them.

[Winger]

What happened before the BB can only be theorized or contemplated. The only thing we can be comfortably sure of is that the Big Bang did happen. It's not hard to accept when you consider the grand consequences of an atom being be split.

[Vehemence]

The only thing we can be comfortably sure of is that the Big Bang did happen.

You are 100% incorrect. The Big Bang is a theory. Meaning it is believed to be plausible but has not been proven.

[Winger]

You are 100% incorrect. The Big Bang is a theory. Meaning it is believed to be plausible but has not been proven.

Don't leave out....it's also the the most plausible and most likely. Every other theory or idea pretty much takes a back seat to it.....including the Easter Bunny

[EdisonTrent]

You are 100% incorrect. The Big Bang is a theory. Meaning it is believed to be plausible but has not been proven.

Uh Oh someone doesn't know the difference between a normal and scientific theory!

[Vehemence]

Irrelevant since no one can prove that that is what actually happened. It's just a theory.

[EdisonTrent]

Irrelevant since no one can prove that that is what actually happened. It's just a theory.

And so is evolution and gravity.

[Vehemence]

Uh Oh someone doesn't know the difference between a normal and scientific theory!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory

Don't be stupid.

[Vehemence]

And so is evolution and gravity.

You can prove gravity exists. Just not how it works.

The human mind/brain is a good example of evolution.

[EdisonTrent]

You can prove gravity exists. Just not how it works.

And you never say gravity is plausible you just say it is until something comes along and flips some science over.

[Vehemence]

I'm not sure what you're arguing. So, to put it simply...a force, which we christened gravity, is keeping your stupid ass on the ground. This is happening. Gravity...exists. We have the proof.

[Redox]

You can prove gravity exists. Just not how it works.

The human mind/brain is a good example of evolution.

And the universe is a good example of a big bang duh.

Seriously, stop talking about stuff you know zero about. Leftovers of the big bang / evidence for it are everywhere.