Big Bang Expansion: Is There A Centre Of The Universe?

[bapowell]

Semantics, yes -- words mean something. And that matters.

Explosions bring to mind material expanding out from a central point. If you polled the general public, I have a good feeling most would agree with this conception. This picture is utterly unlike the early expansion of the universe. If the big bang is considered analogous to an explosion, people will have in mind literally an explosion of matter occurring within pre-existing space. This is not a guess -- on these forums alone we address this misconception more frequently than I think we'd all like. If refraining from a bad analogy prevents people from going down that road, then I'm all for paying attention to semantics.

 

[phinds]

Personally I think "explosion" is an appropriate term. True, the explosions of our acquaintance are three dimensional explosions, but it's not much of a stretch to apply the term to four dimensions.

But it's NOT four dimensions. In the sense that you are using it, a normal fire-cracker is a four-dimensional explosion ... 3 space and 1 time ... from a point. It is too misleading to describe the early universe as an "explosion".

 

[ryan albery]

Let's not knock people who simplify things a bit but get at least some of the idea across rather than make it totally incomprehensible by insisting that they have a full understanding or bust.

good words.