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Science Section => Science General Discussion => Math and Computers => Topic started by: Contemporary Protestant on June 03, 2014, 09:15:19 PM

Title: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Contemporary Protestant on June 03, 2014, 09:15:19 PM
How and where do people get their math on pre-big bang events/situation

I understand multiverse, string theory, and such

However I don't understand why people think math even existed before the start of the laws of physics and such
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: aitm on June 03, 2014, 09:25:20 PM
Did atoms exist before man came along and "discovered" them?
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Contemporary Protestant on June 03, 2014, 09:27:56 PM
Yes, but did said atom exist before the big bang
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: aitm on June 03, 2014, 09:33:21 PM
er..without the atom, the big bang is not a bang. Do you understand what the big bang actually means and how matter can be densified by immense gravity?
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Contemporary Protestant on June 03, 2014, 09:34:18 PM
oh we are not talking about some random atom, sorry my bad, I understand what you mean now

(edit)

this article said there was nothing before the bang, so I was confused

http://space.about.com/od/astronomybasics/a/Origin-Of-The-Universe.htm
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Hijiri Byakuren on June 04, 2014, 01:48:20 AM
Math is a language. It expresses things. Are you able to speak, in English, about things that could possibly have happened before the Big Bang? You are? Well then it shouldn't surprise you that math can do the same thing.

While it is technically correct that there was nothing "before" the Big Bang, you have to remember that this is being measured in terms of space-time. Space-time was created at the Big Bang, so obviously in those terms there was nothing "before" this happened. That doesn't mean the Big Bang can't have a cause, it just means that this cause was outside our current model of space-time. A good example of something outside that model would be the hypothesis about the Singularity (and by extension the Big Bang) coming from the collapse of a 4-D star.

The point is that math is not limited to modeling space-time, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that it's used to try and model things that came "before" the Big Bang.
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: PickelledEggs on June 04, 2014, 02:38:39 AM
Hi CP. I have to agree with Hijiri. Math is a way of observing the universe and therefore is a language. If there wasn't any beings to communicate what is going on in the universe there could be no math.

But for the big bang, here is a video that I found a little while ago. It explains a few things about things like the big bang that people usually don't understand, myself included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBr4GkRnY04
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: EnvireMental on June 23, 2014, 10:37:02 PM
math doesn't exist. it's magnificient creation of human brain.

Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Nam on June 23, 2014, 10:48:08 PM
Quote from: aitm on June 03, 2014, 09:25:20 PM
Did atoms exist before man came along and "discovered" them?

Did you hear them fall in the forest? NO!!! therefore, logic (fucked up logic) dictates atoms never existed. Neither did eve's, or nooners.

(http://stuff.badtudemopars.com/gifs/babycry-001.gif)

-Nam
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: SGOS on June 24, 2014, 08:11:17 AM
If you consider math to be a fundamental property of the universe, then it probably existed during the initial phase of the Bang.

If you consider math to be an description of the properties of the universe, then it's a creation of man.
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Jason78 on June 24, 2014, 12:48:36 PM
Quote from: Contemporary Protestant on June 03, 2014, 09:15:19 PM
I understand multiverse, string theory, and such

Oh good :)  Can you explain it to me then?
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Nam on June 24, 2014, 02:46:04 PM
Quote from: Jason78 on June 24, 2014, 12:48:36 PM
Oh good :)  Can you explain it to me then?

Multiverse is more than one verse. String Theory is a piece of string with two cans on the end where you can speak to the verses.

-Nam
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: Solitary on June 24, 2014, 05:21:04 PM
 :eek: :biggrin2: :popcorn: Solitary
Title: Re: Did math exist before the big bang?
Post by: EnvireMental on June 24, 2014, 09:44:14 PM
Quote from: Nam on June 24, 2014, 02:46:04 PM
Multiverse is more than one verse. String Theory is a piece of string with two cans on the end where you can speak to the verses.

-Nam

i've asked my 7 years-old cousin what the multiverse is, he answered, it's more than a verse, seriously :D:D