• Question: the law of conservation of energy clearly staes "energy cannot be created or destroyed", but during the big bang it appeared does this mean that energy can be create from really dense materials or by made from mass?

    Asked by Sheldon Cooper to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 13 Oct 2015.
    • Photo: Columbus Flight Directors

      Columbus Flight Directors answered on 13 Oct 2015:

      Sergio:
      Hi Sheldon,
      are you sure that the law of conservation of energy was applicable to the universe before the big bang? 😉
      The laws of physics that we all know, are valid and applicable in the universe that we all know, with the current understanding that we have of it and we certain assumptions that are fundamental to make the theory valid.

      As science progresses, we are able to remove or modify some of these assumptions and to find new laws that include the previous theories but also extend our knowledge of how things work.

    • Photo: Beth Healey

      Beth Healey answered on 16 Oct 2015:

      The first assumption of astrophysics is that the laws of physics that you discover in our part of the universe are valid in all the universe. However this is just an assumption and could be wrong.

      The big bang theory claimed that all of the energy was concentrated in a single point so the law of conservation of energy would be respected.

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