- #1
marcmongeon
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Hi, I wonder whether physicists generally understand gravity as the petering out of energy imparted to matter by the big bang. Can we think of two objects separated by space as having some potential energy, which is expended as they move closer together? Can we consider that this potential energy was imparted to the objects by the big bang, which produced time, space, and matter? Would it be senseless, then, to talk about gravity in a universe that was not produced by a big bang?
I guess I'm trying to think of objects in space as poised on the side of a hill, and rolling towards the bottom (the stable, zero-energy state). The question, then, is "How did the objects get up the hill?" I wonder whether the answer is the big bang. My explanation would go like this: The big bang created time, space, energy and matter, and also produced matter separated by space, which is an unstable state that is resolved (i.e., brought to a zero-energy state) by the action of gravity. Is that, more or less, how physicists think about gravity?
Cheers, and I'd be happy to elaborate if any of these questions aren't clear.
Marc
I guess I'm trying to think of objects in space as poised on the side of a hill, and rolling towards the bottom (the stable, zero-energy state). The question, then, is "How did the objects get up the hill?" I wonder whether the answer is the big bang. My explanation would go like this: The big bang created time, space, energy and matter, and also produced matter separated by space, which is an unstable state that is resolved (i.e., brought to a zero-energy state) by the action of gravity. Is that, more or less, how physicists think about gravity?
Cheers, and I'd be happy to elaborate if any of these questions aren't clear.
Marc