Not quite the way things really are \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m trying to get these things clear in my mind for a long-term project, so here is a first sketch. \u00a0Comments and corrections welcome. \u00a0This isn\u2019t exactly my field of specialization:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The term Big Bang<\/em> was coined by\u00a0the great English astronomer and astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle. \u00a0\u201cThese theories,\u201d he said during a BBC radio broadcast in 1949, \u201cwere based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been claimed that Hoyle meant Big Bang<\/em> to be dismissive. \u00a0He himself proposed and favored the \u201csteady state\u201d model, a cosmological theory that was still in vogue (at least popularly) when I was in high school but that has since fallen just about completely out of favor. \u00a0However, Hoyle denied that he intended the term pejoratively. \u00a0He simply wanted to emphasize the difference between the \u201csteady state\u201d theory and the concept of a \u201cbig bang.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Big Bang cosmological model, the\u00a0universe has not always existed in its current state but, rather, began at a specific time in the finite past \u2014 currently estimated at \u00a0\u2014 from a primordial state of inconceivable density and temperature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, given its designation as a \u201cBig Bang,\u201d we tend to imagine this primeval event an explosion. \u00a0And, in our experience, explosions are extremely chaotic phenomena. \u00a0Explosions neither create order nor preserve it. \u00a0Explosions destroy<\/em> order.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plainly, then, it\u2019s severely mistaken to think of the Big Bang as an explosion, because out of it came astonishing order, complex and mathematically expressible natural laws, an organized cosmos rather than a disorganized chaos, a habitable universe, a home for intelligent life.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It might be more appropriate to think of the \u201cBig Bang\u201d as an \u201cexpansion event.\u201d \u00a0It manifested inconceivable energy, like an explosion, but, quite unlike<\/em> an explosion, it did so in a manner that can be argued to have been fine-tuned, controlled, even directed.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are four examples of apparent \u201cfine-tuning,\u201d involving the four fundamental forces or fundamental interactions known to physics \u2014 called \u201cfundamental\u201d because they cannot be reduced to more basic<\/em> interactions:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n- The Strong Nuclear Force: \u00a0The strong nuclear force holds most ordinary matter together, forming\u00a0quarks\u00a0into\u00a0hadron\u00a0particles such as\u00a0protons\u00a0and\u00a0neutrons, and binding\u00a0neutrons and protons to create atomic nuclei. \u00a0At a distance of 10\u221215<\/sup>\u00a0m (1\u00a0femtometer), the strong force is approximately 137\u00a0times as strong as electromagnetism, a million times as strong as the\u00a0weak interaction, and 1038<\/sup>\u00a0times as strong as gravitation.\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If it were slightly more powerful, there would be no hydrogen, an essential element of life. \u00a0If it were slightly weaker, hydrogen would be the sole element in the universe.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Weak Nuclear Force: \u00a0Also known as\u00a0the \u201cweak\u00a0interaction\u201d or \u201cweak force,\u201d the\u00a0weak nuclear force is the mechanism of interaction between subatomic particles that is responsible for the radioactive decay of atoms. \u00a0If it were slightly different, either there would be insufficient helium to generate heavy elements in stars, or else stars would burn out too quickly and, as a result, supernova explosions could not scatter heavy elements across the universe.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Electromagnetic Force: \u00a0The\u00a0electromagnetic force, or\u00a0Lorentz force, accounts for the interaction between both moving and stationary\u00a0charged\u00a0particles. It\u2019s called the electromagnetic force because it includes both\u00a0electric force\u00a0and the\u00a0magnetic force, which were formerly thought to be distinct; it turns out that magnetic forces and electric forces are actually the same fundamental force. \u00a0If it were slightly stronger or weaker, atomic bonds could not form \u2014 which would mean that molecules could not form.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Gravitational Constant: \u00a0In Newtonian terms, the gravitational constant (G) is\u00a0the proportionality constant connecting the\u00a0gravitational force\u00a0between two bodies with the product of their\u00a0masses\u00a0and the\u00a0inverse square\u00a0of the\u00a0distance between them. \u00a0If its value were slightly larger, stars would become too hot and would burn out too quickly. \u00a0If it were smaller, stars would never burn at all and heavy elements would not be produced.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m trying to get these things clear in my mind for a long-term project, so here is a first sketch. \u00a0Comments and corrections welcome. \u00a0This isn\u2019t exactly my field of specialization: \u00a0 The term Big Bang was coined by\u00a0the great English astronomer and astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle. \u00a0\u201cThese theories,\u201d he said during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3790,4627,545,4617,4625,4619,123,407,4629,4621,4623],"class_list":["post-72973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-bang","tag-electromagnetic-force","tag-fine-tuning","tag-fundamental-forces","tag-gravitational-constant","tag-id","tag-intelligent-design","tag-laws-of-nature","tag-natural-laws","tag-strong-nuclear-force","tag-weak-nuclear-force"],"yoast_head":"\n
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