High School How did spacetime pop out into existence?

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The discussion centers on the nature of spacetime and its existence at the moment of the universe's creation. It argues against the notion that spacetime "popped" into existence at t=0, emphasizing that spacetime is a unified manifold where both space and time are interdependent. Participants clarify that while space is expanding, spacetime itself is not a physical entity that can be said to have a beginning or end. The conversation highlights misconceptions about the relationship between spacetime and time, asserting that time cannot exist independently of spacetime. Ultimately, the dialogue reveals the complexities of understanding cosmological concepts within general relativity.
  • #31
Isaac0427 said:
I'm not talking about a point in spacetime. Also, the North Pole has nothing to do with this.

It does, it is a similar concept and you need to understand this in order to have any chance of understanding what is going on.

Isaac0427 said:
Please respond to the question, not my wording.
Have you stopped to consider that your wording is very relevant to what you are asking? That you are not able to put the question in a language that is appropriate is only indicative of the fact that you are not yet familiar enough with the mathematics which go into the description of how space-time behaves. As such, we can only give you something which is somewhat of a popularisation of the theory. The theory is self-consistent and described beautifully in mathematics, in order to understand it properly, you need to learn these branches of mathematics. It is not enough to read a popular account of things and "reason" based on what you have read.
 
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  • #32
Orodruin said:
It does, it is a similar concept and you need to understand this in order to have any chance of understanding what is going on.Have you stopped to consider that your wording is very relevant to what you are asking? That you are not able to put the question in a language that is appropriate is only indicative of the fact that you are not yet familiar enough with the mathematics which go into the description of how space-time behaves. As such, we can only give you something which is somewhat of a popularisation of the theory. The theory is self-consistent and described beautifully in mathematics, in order to understand it properly, you need to learn these branches of mathematics. It is not enough to read a popular account of things and "reason" based on what you have read.
Ok, but can you please give me a simple answer: is there something that would have caused the Big Bang, or are we just assuming it appeared.
 
  • #33
Orodruin said:
Why do you find this harder to imagine than the Earth having a north pole?
Because the North Pole is the effect of the Earth's positioning. Spacetime having a beginning seems to be the effect of nothing at all.
 
  • #34
Isaac0427 said:
Because the North Pole is the effect of the Earth's positioning. Spacetime having a beginning seems to be the effect of nothing at all.

It is the effect of a coordinate system having a point at which the coordinates do not tell you very much. It is different from the singularity of the FLRW space-time in that you can remove the singularity by imposing a different coordinate system, but similar in the sense that there is a point where the given coordinate system breaks down. Once you understand this, you can start thinking about a cone with the top point removed, this is to some extent more similar to the type of manifold you would deal with in the FLRW case.

Isaac0427 said:
is there something that would have caused the Big Bang, or are we just assuming it appeared.

You are back at arguing in a manner that you have been repeatedly told does not make sense. You cannot talk of appearing or cause without a time concept, which is an integral part of the space-time itself.

The OP has been answered several times over and you are going in circles here. Thread closed.
 

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