3 ms·

Speaking of the big bang, how did time work back then? :) It's cool to say "in the first milliseconds of the existence of the universe X and Y happened", but h

Speaking of the big bang, how did time work back then? :) It's cool to say "in the first milliseconds of the existence of the universe X and Y happened", but how did time supposedly run as usual while everything else was on the fringe of our understanding of reality? There don't seem to be any answers to this (or I haven't looked thoroughly enough) but it feels like a very important question that's always overlooked by everyone talking about this.

Balgair 2y ago
Yeah, it is overlooked because the real answers are 'hidden' behind a lot of graduate level math. And most people don't really want to learn a bookcase worth of math first to talk about it, but they talk all the same. Like, if you'd like to really dive into it then you're going to need to go through a lot of textbooks first. If you are moderately familiar with multi-variable calc, then here is a good book to get started down the GR hole: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physicists-Comprehensive-Guide/dp/0123846544 https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physicists-Compr... Suffice to say, yes, there have been a lot of grad students that have the exact same questions and issue that you currently have. Further, once they have reached the end of the mathematical education required to understand how space time works in the first few minutes of the universe, they focus those questions into the issues we have with inflation. Those issues mostly come from our lack of understanding about how GR and QM interact, so the first 10e-43 seconds or so. At least, that is my understanding. Physicists are welcome to tell me how dumb I am right now!
- mr_mitm 2y ago
  (former) Physicist with focus on cosmology here. Your reply is one of the sanest in this thread.
artimaeis 2y ago
There's a lot of attempts at investigating those questions. Here's a couple of pages I'd recommend to peruse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe If you're into podcasts at all, I'd strongly recommend Crash Course Pods: The Universe. The first (full) episode goes into detail on that first fraction of a second in our universe and it's pretty enlightening without being to thick on the math.

Balgair 2y ago

Yeah, it is overlooked because the real answers are 'hidden' behind a lot of graduate level math. And most people don't really want to learn a bookcase worth of math first to talk about it, but they talk all the same. Like, if you'd like to really dive into it then you're going to need to go through a lot of textbooks first. If you are moderately familiar with multi-variable calc, then here is a good book to get started down the GR hole: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physicists-Comprehensive-Guide/dp/0123846544 https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Methods-Physicists-Compr... Suffice to say, yes, there have been a lot of grad students that have the exact same questions and issue that you currently have. Further, once they have reached the end of the mathematical education required to understand how space time works in the first few minutes of the universe, they focus those questions into the issues we have with inflation. Those issues mostly come from our lack of understanding about how GR and QM interact, so the first 10e-43 seconds or so. At least, that is my understanding. Physicists are welcome to tell me how dumb I am right now!

mr_mitm 2y ago
(former) Physicist with focus on cosmology here. Your reply is one of the sanest in this thread.

artimaeis 2y ago

There's a lot of attempts at investigating those questions. Here's a couple of pages I'd recommend to peruse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe If you're into podcasts at all, I'd strongly recommend Crash Course Pods: The Universe. The first (full) episode goes into detail on that first fraction of a second in our universe and it's pretty enlightening without being to thick on the math.