Question: how do you think the world started?

Urslaan Chohan answered on 9 Jun 2018:

This is an excellent question! For me, the answer of “how” lies in Physics. The universe started with a big bang, which then left lots of little (sub)particles known as “quarks” and “antiquarks” floating everywhere. The temperature at this point was very high. The quarks and antiquarks are like mirror images, except when they come in contact they “cancel each other out” (annihilate), producing energy. The annihilation did not occur symmetrically (else nothing would exist!) leaving quarks floating around. These quarks join together to form particles, which then eventually form the building blocks of the universe – atoms. You can think of this a bit like Lego – the small blocks join together to form bigger and bigger things. The atoms join in different ways, forming rocks and stars and galaxies around us.

Now this is where it gets interesting. Our solar system formed at some point, as part of a galaxy (called the milky way). The rocks that formed through the above chain reaction were floating about. Now we know that rocks have mass (meaning we can physically touch them), so that means they are affected by something called gravity. The things making up the rocks (atoms) also have a property known as charge. Just like with magnets, where N and S attract, the rocks started to attract and join due to having opposite charges overall. This is known as electrostatic attraction. Eventually the rocks got big enough for gravity to be a big enough force. They pulled together and the earth was formed!

Now this was the start of our world. A big rock, orbiting around the sun. You can take the question further, considering how the atoms joined to form other things like water, and life itself!

And as for what caused the big bang… we’re still trying to figure that out.