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Thread: Questions:

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Questions:

    Did the Big Bang make any noise?

  2. #2
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    I find this answer totally unsatisfying.
    http://faculty.washington.edu/jcramer/BBSound_2013.html

  3. #3
    If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it does not make a sound.
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    What is noise?

    and ....

    Camples?
    "Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor

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    Proud Member since 2/2002 UnderAGlassMoon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it does not make a sound.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    Did the Big Bang make any noise?
    Absolutely not. First, there was no viable medium for the propagation of sound waves - there would have been only plasma (I guess, depending on where you are in time); no atomic particles, no air or water or solids through which sound would normally propagate, and more importantly there would be no ears to receive the sound waves even it there were a mechanism to propagate them. No ears, no sound, to ronmac's point. You already know I'm sure that the term "Big Bang" was a pejorative one coined by the astronomer Fred Hoyle who had contempt for the theory.

    P.S. I know it was a rhetorical question in levity but being a smart ass, I couldn't resist.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    It was rhetorical, but also serious. Sound requires a medium to propagate through, and during the Big Bang it is debatable (see the link above from Professor Cramer) whether any such medium existed.

    It's also a mental exercise. How can there be a Bang without any sound? If the universe itself was expanding, what would such waves travel through? If the universe was expanding at the speed of light (or maybe faster, according to recent speculation?) how fast would "sound" waves have to travel?

    As I said, it's a simple question with some rather weighty issues that make it considerably harder to answer than a simple yes or no.
    Last edited by rcarlberg; 11-19-2019 at 11:33 AM.

  9. #9
    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    This is one of the fallacies of sci-fi movies like Star Wars. How can one "hear" the Death Star exploding in the vacuum of space?
    "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama

  10. #10
    There was no vacuum in the instants after the Big Bang; no matter as such either. All was highly compressed energy. Can sound propagate in pure energy? Yes: energy vibrates. But the "volume" of energy is equivalent to temperature. That initial bang is still echoing across the universe ever more faintly (that is, at ever lower temperatures: it's currently about 2.75 Kelvin), and shall do so till the Heat Death or the Grand Gnab, whichever comes first.
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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Buddhabreath View Post
    and more importantly there would be no ears to receive the sound waves even it there were a mechanism to propagate them. No ears, no sound, to ronmac's point.
    Exactly! It makes a wave which remains a wave until it is received by an ear to convert it to a sound. The sound is inside the head only.
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    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it does not make a sound.
    If they managed to make a recording of it, people would immediately start complaining about how it was brickwalled or how it sounded better on vinyl.

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    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    If the universe was expanding at the speed of light (or maybe faster, according to recent speculation?) how fast would "sound" waves have to travel?
    Excellent point. Totally missed that. Anywho, thanks for the thought provoking question. Now we can get back to analyzing Jon Anderson lyrics.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave (in MA) View Post
    If they managed to make a recording of it, people would immediately start complaining about how it was brickwalled or how it sounded better on vinyl.
    Dave, I think you got closer to the truth than any of us!

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it does not make a sound.
    You've probably heard the other take on this:

    If a man speaks and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

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    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    If a bear shits in the woods......what's next?

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    The Pope is Catholic?

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    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    The Pope is Catholic?
    Yes. And water is wet, right?

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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    It was rhetorical, but also serious. Sound requires a medium to propagate through, and during the Big Bang it is debatable (see the link above from Professor Cramer) whether any such medium existed.

    It's also a mental exercise. How can there be a Bang without any sound? If the universe itself was expanding, what would such waves travel through? If the universe was expanding at the speed of light (or maybe faster, according to recent speculation?) how fast would "sound" waves have to travel?

    As I said, it's a simple question with some rather weighty issues that make it considerably harder to answer than a simple yes or no.
    We are still waiting for the sound wave to arrive.

    Should be here in a couple o billion years. Get the earplugs ready.
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    That's a rhetorical question, right?
    Absolutely.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    If a bear shits in the woods......what's next?
    1170950_576820015713458_1174557715_n.jpg
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