There's Nothing There - Part 14

So. Here's what you need to make a universe with something in it. 

First, a universe. Any size. Not very old. In fact, brand new. Right off the lot. Very very low mileage. Made of Space-Time. Really really big, though. Huuuuge. Enormous. So when we said "any size" right back there, it was kind of a Henry Ford-ish "any size". Ford said you could have any color Model A car that you wanted, as long as it was black. You can have any size universe you want, as long as it's huuuuuuge.

Big empty universe. Looks like this. Only emptier.
And bigger.

With nothing in it. That's what we got. An enormous universe with nothing in it.

So we need to find a way for a universe with nothing in it to become a universe with something in it.


By the way, when we say "something", we mean, like, order. Structure. Organized things.

Since we only have our universe to look at, we're going to have to go with what happened in our universe. Odds are good anyway that 1) there aren't any other universes and 2) if there are, most of them will have nothing in them. That's what we're told. Unless there's an infinite number of them. Then, 3) most of them will have nothing in them. 4) In an infinite sort of way.

Anyway. Second, rules. Like, the laws of physics. So our universe produced those. Gravity was first. Then the Strong Force. (Gravity is the weakest. The Strong Force is [duh] the strongest.) 

Then electromagnetism and the weak force, which arrived simultaneously because right before that, they were called the electro-weak because they were together (That would be an awesome name for a superhero - "Electro-Weak!"). 

Right before that was called the Grand Unified Theory because the Strong Force was together with them. We'll call it the Grand Unified Theory "GUT", because, um, that's what they call it. 

Right before that was called the Theory of Everything, because all four forces were together. Except Gravity isn't a force. Don't worry about that. It's just confusing. But we'll call the Theory of Everything "TOE", because, well, that's what they call it.

It's too bad we don't call them Big, cuz then we'd have the Big GUT and the Big TOE. And that would be funny. Ha.

Here's a good question. Why or how did the universe just ... come up with ... laws? I mean, what's up with that? Weird enough that you get a universe at all, but then the laws of physics that make everything happen just ... appear? All of a sudden, we got laws? Very strange.

Anyway. Third, energy.

OK, now we have a problem. Where the heck do you come up with energy when there isn't any?

Hmmmm. We're going to have to get creative.

Here's what we'll do. We'll take no energy, which is what we have, and divide it into two.

Hmmmm. How exactly does one do that?

Well. Since we're good at math, and the universe is all about math, we'll divide no energy into a positive half and a negative half. And they'll just exactly balance each other out. Which makes zero.

So once again, we take ... nothing ... and turn it into ... something.

The positive half we'll call ... matter. And the negative half we'll call ... gravity.

And they'll just exactly balance each other out.

Genius.

Wait. How are we going to turn energy into matter? I mean, you can't just ... do that ... can you?

Very bad joke. I'm so sorry.

Well. As it turns out, we can. It's called E=MCsquared, which I would write differently if the text formatting here would let me. Dang.

But you might recognize it. Albert (The Man) Einstein came up with that. And what it means is ...

Energy just becomes matter.

In fact, since the whole electro-magnetic spectrum is just different forms of light, what really happens is ...

Light becomes matter.

And so it did.

Why? How!? What's up with that!?! Light just ... BECOMES MATTER?!?!?

Well. Yes. We have a law for that. E = MCsquared. There you go.

Let's review.

1) The universe comes out of nothing.

2) The laws of physics come out of nothing.

3) Energy comes out of nothing.

4) Matter comes from energy which came out of nothing.

5) All the matter is made of light.

6) And the whole thing starts with almost zero entropy. That is, in almost the most perfect state of order that it would ever be in.

So, thus far, what we've got it is, nothing. That is rapidly becoming something. Sort of.