• Question: What happened before the big bang?

    Asked by edrienepadua to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 14 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      No one really knows the answer to this, we don’t even know if it makes any sense to ask the question. Stephen Hawking once said that asking what was before the Big Bang was like asking what is North of the North Pole? According to the Big Bang theory, time itself started then. There is by definition no before.

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      Hi!

      Good question and one that sort of blows your mind if you think about it too much… basically, I agree with Steven that scientists have agreed not to ask this question… this is because everything we know (and can see) is this universe and this includes things like mathematics, the laws of physics, what it means to be human, the experience of time as a one way thing (going forward) and space as three dimensions (that we experience anyway)… we can trace our universe back to the Big Bang but if *time itself* started with the Big Bang, then ‘before’ has no meaning until that point… so you actually *can’t* ask that question using concepts that are only valid in this universe!

      So as I said, it’s sort of mind blowing and gives you a headache if you think about it too much… there are lots of good popular science books out there though about this (e.g. John Gribbin)

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