• Question: do u agree with thw big bang theory, what do u think of it

    Asked by maebrett to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by olives, twilightgibbo.
    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      The idea of the big bang at the beginning of the universe is the best theory we have that explains a lot of the things we see out in space, including the fact that it seems like all the galaxies are moving away from eachother, and space is a teeny bit warmer than it should be.

      I try not to spend too much time thinking about it though, because I don’t reeaallly understand it all, and the hugeness of space scares me!

    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I’ve not studied this in detail, but I think that most scientists agree that the universe could have started this way.

    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I agree with the theory in general, but I don’t like the name. There wouldn’t really have been an explosion as we normally think of them, as there would a) have been no air to make a sound in, and b) no space to explode into!

      But most of the evidence we have points to the universe starting with a really fast, energetic expansion from a single point.

      We don’t fully understand this concept, but some people are looking into it and with particle accelerators we can start to do experiments in the kind of conditions that would have been around just after the Big (not) Bang. We’ll never be able to go all the way back though, so it may be that we never know.

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      The Big Bang theory is rather hard to prove. Somebody once said that studying the universe, which is a science called cosmology, isn’t proper science because there is only one universe to study so you can make up a theory, make it fit, but you can’t then test it with another universe.

      I don’t agree with that argument (I hope Karen will be glad to hear that!) and I do actually think that the ideas and evidence for the big bang are pretty good.

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      I think the evidence at this point is really overwhelming – which is a scientists way of saying yes I agree with it!

      One interesting fact – it was named by a scientist making fun of how ridiculous a theory it was (in a radio show I think). That scientist (Fred Hoyle) died (as an old man) in 2001 still rejecting the idea of the theory he named – and ironically if you read about him much of what you read will be about the Big Bang.

Comments