What was the big bang? – Silicon Zone

Question: What was the big bang?

Asked by cheesesneese to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: General. This question was also asked by calamm8.
- Andrew Maynard answered on 12 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi cheesesneese,
  
  there was a big bang? Where? How big? I didn’t hear anything!!
  
  Sorry, it’s been a long afternoon with lots of questions 🙂
  
  This is a tough question to answer quickly, but the short answer is that the Big Bang theory is the theory that the universe began as a super-dense, super-hot, super-small mass of material that exploded and expanded, leading to the formation of the universe we see now. The idea sounds incredible, but an increasing number of measurements indicate that it is a strong theory. Most importantly, it is a theory that allows scientists to make predictions about the universe that turn out to be true – that’s always the test of a good theory.
- anon answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  Ah Cheeseneese you’re back! The big bang’s not something I have a handle on. You need an astro-physicist. Wikipedia’s quite good on this subject. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang.
  
  I quite liked these jokes as well:http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/b/big_bang.asp
  
  Boss Maynard’s already done a good job in his answer above.
- Marianne Baker answered on 17 Jun 2010:
  
  In terms of the theory itself, the point at which the universe as we know it began to expand from a singularity. That’s all I can really say about it, as I’m not a physicist!

Question: What was the big bang?

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