Can anyone tell me exactly what the big bang theory is?

Question

there doesn't seem to be one definition of it, there's lots of little differentiations in them

Answer 1

from all the observations scientists have done, they have concluded that sometime in the very distant past everything were flying or coming out of 1 point, the origin. this is said because now every galaxy is moving away from each other. so in reverse (rewinding the whole process back), they would all come to 1 point. if that's true, it would mean that everything in the universe began to exist after a certain start of "time and space", a spark or an explosion. they call this the "big bang"! the start of "time" and "space"!

Answer 2

the big bang is a thery that states that the universe started in a small point ware all the matter was squezzed into as a result presser and tempurature are high then a large expansion happened (not an explosion)  it also states that the universe is expanding wich means pressure and tempurature are decreasing    it also states that  soon it will start imploding (the opposite of expand) until it is to a single point called the big crunch    then the big bang will hapen again

Answer 3

It is an old cosmological theory used to explain the redshifts of most galaxies. It states the universe was increasingly expanding from since its fuzzy nanoscopic orgin where it was brought into existence by a 'Prime Observer' according to the quantum mechanical concept known as 'Shrodinger's Cat'. It said only special large-scale cosmological space increasingly expands but not 'mundane space' like that in our planetary orbits and atomic orbitals. Not to mention it never explained why the embedded objects' dimensions (another type of space) weren't expanding either.

New theory (for now):

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/02/0506/...

Remember theories come and go. We must keep a handle on our hubris for the universe is in actuality much stranger than we will ever really know...

Answer 4

It appears from careful observation that our universe is expanding, and if you triangulate all the motion that we can see, it all seems to come from a central point.  Kinda like a firework that explodes, with all the stuff flying in all directions, but out from a center point.  

So its nicknamed the "big bang"  the point where everything came from, just like when the fireworks explodes, all the stuff expands outward from it.

It also follows that what occurred before the big bang is untraceable, as all the mass of the universe was changed at that moment.  

The secondary point of the theory is that since all the mass of universe came from there it must of been a very strange place before it started its expansion.

Answer 5

The Big Bang Theory is simple. It states that at one point in the universe only tiny atoms and particles existed. Then two larger atoms collided and connected with billions of other atoms that form the universe. What happened as a result was that the universe began to expand. Although many people don't know that the universe is still expanding.

Answer 6

Big bang theory is that the universe started at a single point.  Something caused it to begin expanding.  Some theorists believe the start to be a black hole.  It has all of the matter and could have enough energy.  The other end of the theory is does the universe continue to expand or does it reach a certain point and then suck back in on itself.

That's it in a nutshell.  You can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang

for more information.

Answer 7

The big bang theory proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic explosion called the big bang, occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, and the universe has since been expanding and cooling.

The theory is based on the mathematical equations, known as the field equations, of the general theory of relativity set forth in 1915 by Albert Einstein. In 1922 Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann provided a set of solutions to the field equations. These solutions have served as the framework for much of the current theoretical work on the big bang theory. American astronomer Edwin Hubble provided some of the greatest supporting evidence for the theory with his 1929 discovery that the light of distant galaxies was universally shifted toward the red end of the spectrum (see Redshift). Once “tired light” theories—that light slowly loses energy naturally, becoming more red over time—were dismissed, this shift proved that the galaxies were moving away from each other. Hubble found that galaxies farther away were moving away proportionally faster, showing that the universe is expanding uniformly. However, the universe’s initial state was still unknown.

The overall framework of the big bang theory came out of solutions to Einstein’s general relativity field equations and remains unchanged, but various details of the theory are still being modified today. Einstein himself initially believed that the universe was static. When his equations seemed to imply that the universe was expanding or contracting, Einstein added a constant term to cancel out the expansion or contraction of the universe. When the expansion of the universe was later discovered, Einstein stated that introducing this “cosmological constant” had been a mistake

Answer 8

From what I have heard and read, it's a theory that the universe started with a tremendous explosion about 15 billion years ago.  It is said that all of the matter of space was all together during some time.  

Answer 9

This question is disgraceful - despite hundreds of years of observation - not to mention our latest technology, astro and geo physical research spanning the last 100 years, Ironstein, Newton, Galileo and Hawking et al, despite the presence of the moon and stars, despite forces such as gravity, despite H2O being discovered on mars, secure and smart Christians know that this is an illusion,  the earth was made in six days (or was it seven) and we "Human Beings" are the only life form in a galaxy with over 400 billion suns that is just one of  400 billion galaxies in the observable universe,  the "Bible" has much more proof.  So, therefore, there was no "Big Bang".  (lol).

Answer 10

I don't have the long answer you want, but I can tell you why it's confusing.  It's an event that started billions of years ago and is still going on.  It has been through many stages and nobody knows why it started or how it will end.  Here's a short answer:

1.  There was nothing, not even time or space.

2.  Time and space started out very small and expanded rapidly.  Only energy existed at first.

3.  Time and space continued to expand rapidly.  The universe cooled enough that matter formed.

4.  Time and space continud to expand.  Stars and galaxies formed.

5.  Today, spacce is still expanding, which means the distance between galaxies is getting larger.  The speed they're drifting apart is increasing for no apparent reason.

6.  Billions of years from now, other galaxies will be drifting away so fast that we won't be able to see them.  

Answer 11

The Big Bang theory is very much developed from the initial idea thought of decades ago.

Modern theory goes that the universe was at a point smaller than an atom, at this point the 3 primary forces of the universe were as one. Due to an unknown reason it suddenly seperated to generate the 3 forces, (recent theories suggest alternate parts of the nature that makes different universes influences eachother to do this).

Because the laws of physics were not complete at this time (the forces of the universe not fully formed) then the "stuff" that formed and spread out could be evenly distributed over an unknown area (we do not know how big the universe is, it could be unlimited). After this point (less than a second) the forces formed and the laws of physics as we know them began to enact, generating atoms and the structures we know matter is made of.

As time passed, the universe slowly cooled, the energy distributing and the atoms gathering together to form galaxies, stars, and planets.

And that... in the simplest terms i could, is the theory of the Big Bang.

Please realise that this theory is continually being updated, so taking it at face value is really of no importance unless you are hugely interested in quantum physics.

Answer 12

There was nothing, then all of a sudden without sound(no bang), everything came from no where and accelerated past the speed of light because there was not anything to restrict it, cooled, and made what we have today.