Explanation By Herman D’Hondt from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
It may sound unbelievable, but numerous scientists believe that the total energy of the universe is zero. Therefore, there was no need of energy to be “created” when the universe came into existence.
While it looks obvious that there’s a large quantity of energy in the particles and radiation that pervade the universe, this energy can be balanced through negative energy due to the gravitational attraction among the particles. As Stephen Hawking explained, when you pull 2 objects apart, you ought to expend energy to overcome the gravity that attracts them together. As it takes positive energy to separate them, gravity should be negative energy.
If that theory is correct, then there had been never any requirement to create energy or matter and they cancel each other out. That means that the big bang could have started as a simple statistical fluctuation.
It additionally implies that it might be possible to create our own big bang: simply squeeze a lot vacuum in the right direction and bingo, a new universe, no energy needed.
Explanation By Mike Follows Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK
Energy can be transferred among different stores. Energy and matter are equivalent, so nuclear energy, for example, starts-off as matter. When an inventory is taken of all of the matter and energy in the universe, it sums up to zero, which appears counter-intuitive to mention the least.
The zero-energy universe hypothesis is the easiest explanation of this, as mentioned in 1973 by Edward Tryon, who was the first to suggest that our universe is the end result of a quantum fluctuation.
According to Albert Einstein, mass & energy are equivalent and consistent with Tryon, the positive energy related to mass is counterbalanced by gravitational potential energy, that’s negative. Also, consistent with quantum field theory, particles routinely pop into and out of existence. Tryon said that the same could happen for a universe.
Explanation By Keith Ross Villembits, France
The quantity of energy/matter in the universe is constant and derives from the mysterious Big Bang. Over time, this turns into more and more spread out and less and less useful, despite the fact that the actual quantity doesn’t change.
Take the sun as an example. Its nuclear fusion reactions make matter (consider it as concentrated energy) into visible sunlight and different forms of energy. The sunlight hits a green leaf on Earth and the solar energy is now transferred into a chemical energy store as oxygen is separated from carbon dioxide & water, leaving carbohydrate in the leaf.
We consume the leaf and breathe in the oxygen. The respiration reaction in our muscle cells permits the energy to be used to move our arm as we hammer in a nail. The arm, nail, hammer and the air absorb sound, get hot and radiate infrared heat to outer space.
So, the energy concentrated in the original hydrogen atoms in the sun is now scattered into the universe. Low-grade and nearly useless, however still the same quantity we started with.
This had been originally published on New Scientist.
