• Question: Do you believe in the big bang theory? Why?

    Asked by P-MERCA88 to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Well, ‘believe’ is a tricky word. I don’t know much about physics, so I don’t really understand all the evidence around the Big Bang – but people who do have tried to explain it to me, and have showed me how they got results which back up what they are saying – so I reckon it’s probably true, or at leas the best model we have at the moment.

    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Hi the theory sounds better than other alternatives, but as a scientist you never fully believe anything, but what you do is question things and make your interpretation based upon the evidence you have to hand. Indeed, they used to believe the world was flat as there was not the evidence to suggest an alternative for many years! Always be prepared to adapt your interpretation to incorporate new findings.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      The Big Bang theory is a method to explain the mechanism of how everything came to be like it is. This theory is built of several peices of evidence and some logical arguments.

      The first piece of evidence is the observation that every part of the universe is expanding away from every other part of the universe. Its like if you put lots of spots on a balloon before blowing it up, they all move away from each other. This indicates the universe used to be smaller than it is now. If you extrapolate backwards then you reach a point where the entire universe was as small as a single point in space (known as a singularity).

      The second peice of evidence is called the Cosmic Microwave background. The argument goes that during the Big Bang a lot of energy and light was produced. As the Universe has expanded this light and energy has been stretched so it no longer looks like a wave that goes up and down really fast (like x-rays) but a wave that goes up and down really slowly (like microwaves). It a bit like if you were driving a car to a place a mile away, but as you were driving there, the entire space between where you started and where you are going was stretched so that the distance actually became 100miles. You can imagine that by the time your car got there it would be 100 times longer than when it started. This is how the light from the Big Bang got stretched through the expansion of the Universe.

      Thirdly, the Big Bang theory explains the superstructure of the galaxy. You’ve probably heard of the solar system, you probably know about galaxies, but did you know that galaxies orbit each other forming clumps called clusters. These clusters also orbit and interact with each other forming things called superclusters. These superclusters also interact forming things called supercluster complexes. Alongside these areas that (comparably) have a lot of stuff in them, there are also massive gaps in the universe billions of lightyears across. It is proposed that minor differences in the energy distribution of the big bang caused these differences (and there is various complex mathematics to explain it).

      There are also many further mathematical arguments suggesting the Big Bang as the theory for the beginning of the Universe.

      As a Christian, I also believe the Universe had a beginning because I believe it was created which indicates a beginning.

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