this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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There is no limit to what can fit in your suitcase if you are ok with creating a singularity.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

technically, no, the universe wasn't the size of a pinpoint, the visible universe may have been that size, but the capital-u Universe is very possibly infinite, so it was still infinite back then, just denser. /Much/ denser.

Two points on opposite ends of the visible universe right now (90-something billion light years apart) used to be a millimeter away from each other. Every thing and every where today was there then, just unimaginably compacted, and hot, hot enough to melt matter into an infinite quark gluon plasma. So there were no atoms, no protons even...so dense it would immediately collapse into a black hole today, but with just as much stuff in every direction, there was nowhere for the stuff to condense into.

So yeah, don't fill up your suitcase that much, or you'll make a black hole and your socks will be gone, like /really/ gone

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

I know we'll probably never know, but I always wonder how the singularity came to be. Some will say it was a previous universe that reverted back and has been infinitely doing so, but how did it start??

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I put it there. I thought it would be funny

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You bastard

Because of you I have to go to work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

well how was I supposed to know my actions would have consequences?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is it really so crazy to think that it might have always existed? I mean, it is very bold of us to assume that it is not possible to not have a starting point when there is so much we just don't know. We barely understand the physics of our universe when things start to get wonky.

[–] minh2134 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In the grand scheme of things I guess it is not. The problem is that statement is infalsifiable, like the Last Thursdayism theory. Therefore, it falls into more of philosophical space, where Occam's Razor would eliminate this because the alternative requires less assumption. It isn't wrong, it just requires much more assumptions to be correct in order to work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It is a bummer to think that we likely will never figure out for sure what happened before the big bang.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

There are ways for things to come from nothing in quantum mechanics. Positive/negative particle pairs can pop into existence because their average energy is 0. They're typically very shortly lived though. It's possible it didn't come from anything and just was. Time is also part of space-time, so there wasn't a "before" most likely either

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That is the question, what banged and why did it bang. There's some quantum theories that elude to a possible source of the big bang, but nothing widely accepted. As to why, that's an even tougher question.

The term singularity as applied in cosmology comes from the mathematical definition where one variable approaches infinity as another goes to zero. This is bad in math since it means an equation is not defined across all values. This is what happens mathematically as you get closer to time zero for the big bang. Same with the gravity of a black hole as you move toward the center. In that sense the size of the big bang at time zero would be zero, but the math breaks down so it's not actually defined. Physicists generally believe that's not the case due to the quantum nature of the universe, but we don't have the math to explore it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I did a bit of searching and the initial size you mention seems to be the initial size to which extrapolation is possible given information we have and that past that point it's unknowable?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

the time with a hot QGP filing every bit of space is what things would look like immediately after the Inflationary Epoch, around t=10^32. The region of space that would eventually become the visible universe was maybe the size of an orange then. Inflation is often described as the "bang" in the Big Bang. Physics can describe the universe back to inflation very well, but before that things get less clear. Most think the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces) were all one, at a temperature of 10^30 degrees, and things spread out and cooled until the gravity peeled off on its own. Things spread out and cooled a bit more and the strong force separated from the electroweak force. It may have been this transition that triggered cosmic inflation. Things spread out a lot more (by a factor of at least 10^26!), then stopped and returned to growing gently. That point in time is where the laws of physics are well-described, and testable in particle accelerators

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

If I turn my castle into a black hole in order to fit in the suitcase, is it really a castle anymore?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

These are the philosophical questions that every traveler must answer for themselves. I am but a hobbit. I didn't even remember to bring a handkerchief!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It is anything you want it to be

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

My kingdom for a hole.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

Did you pack this universe yourself?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The last time, I did this, my suitcase broke.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

We call this "The Big Bang".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

The Big Bang!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

On a cosmic scale the world is my suitcase

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If your suitcase is open, waiting to be packed, is nothing in it, or is everything in it?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh my god. I'm stuck in somebody's suitcase.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's suitcases all the way down!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

existential crisis intensifies

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

but since then I've gained mass... a lot of mass :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

It was larger than that, minimum it was about the size of a human being.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Where did that pinpoint come from?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've read theories about white holes and such. I'm not a physicist though. But ultimately, sometimes you just need to shrug and say I don't know. Any assertions without evidence are meaningless guesses.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

Right. Once the conversation goes that far back, I usually stop talking science and revert to diety and simulation theories.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you Bilbo Baggins of hobbit world 😂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

This is my thought literally every time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yes but those femurs are super long and really hard to break into two parts...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I just put extra stuff into other people’s suitcases before I board and take it out before they get to the baggage claim, I don’t see how people could have this problem???

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

That's what you mom said last night

/dadjokes

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 years ago

The arrow of time doesn't flow in that direction!

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