“There was no time before big bang” – what does that mean?
In: Physics
So this is beyond an ELI5, but then so is your question. There are theories that suggest at SOMETHING existed before the Big Bang, but string theory is beyond my comprehension and is still kind of an ongoing thing with no real answer about what, if anything, existed back then.
Outside of that, the most basic explanation of how there was no time before the Big Bang is that there was no matter (in the traditional sense) until the Big Bang happened. Time and energy cannot exist without each other. So if there’s no matter, there’s no energy, and there’s no time.
You can also get more philosophical about it – if there is no matter, then nothing exists to experience time. Therefore it cannot exist.
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