If there was a big bang what created the big bang or put it in motion?

If I knew the answer to this, I would not be here but on some tropical island sipping cool beverages and enjoying the view.

This is not a even a complete sentence, let alone a question. But if you're asking, could the big bang have been spawned by a previous big bang, then the answer is doubtfully not.

What the first person is suggesting was first considered many years ago as a possible solution to Einstein's equations. In these equations, there are a set of coefficients (energy densities really) which dictate the precise evolution of the universe. If these constants have certain values, then the universe could expand at first, then slow down, and possibly reverse --- resulting in the "big crunch". However, when this realized, we had essentially no clue as to how many constants there were, let alone what values they took on. We now know these answers, thanks to the WMAP probe. (Just google WMAP or wikipedia it, and you'll learn more than you cared to ask). These values are such that the universe will exponentially expand forever and *CANNOT* change direction and implode, as in the big crunch idea. Of course all this demonstrates is that we will not experience a big crunch in the future, and says nothing about the past. The universe an instant before the expansion from the BB began was a singularity (we know this thanks to S. Hawking). THerefore, we it is mathematically impossible to know anything about the universe prior to this instant or the instant itself. More precisely, the length of this "instant" is the Planck time, roughly 10^-43 seconds long (which is 0.00000000 *insert 43 "zeros"* 1 seconds long). Hence, anything that happened more than 1 Planck time after the beginning is unknowable, even with infinitely large telescopes, etc... So could the BB have been spawned by the previous generation of Big crunches? Probably not. I only say that because, with the 1 universe that we can know stuff about, it is impossible.

The idea of multiverses or bubble/island universes is not the same as what you're asking about.

Outstanding Question!!!

Some scientists think the Big Bang is a cycle. Its called the "Big Crunch" or Big Bounce hypothesis. It says that all matter is condensed into a small particle that is infinitely dense then it explodes out in a big bang then once all its outward traveling energy is depleted it is pulled back in on itself by gravity,and condenses in a big crunch, only to compact itself enough to build up pressure then BANG... all over again. The last time this happened was around 13.7 billion years ago.

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Polar Bear, The expanding of the universe can be seen and measured, we still have not proven or disproved the existence of Dark matter. Maybe an empty area in space is really just empty and not full of some unviewable and untraceable matter. But that was a great idea. I am also a fan of the idea of dark matter, but believe more in Gravity. Which could be used to explain the Big Crunch.

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George. This is a reasonable hypothesis. And don't use Wiki , people can go in and change anything on there. Most of the suggestions you used are from String theory? The question was about the origin of this Universe not the possabilities of a multi-verse. Great ideas also.

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George, I will admit that you know more than me on this subject. I may be wrong,but people alos used to think we lived in a Geocentric universe, so you never really know. But all B.S. asside, you really shouldn't trust Wiki, people can cgange anything at anytime on there. Google is much safer.

Still, I love a good conversation so Thumbs up from me.

Ah yes, this is more of a theological question, rather than a scientific one. There are many things out there which are beyond our comprehension. For example: there are black holes, black matter, and black energy all of which are, as of yet, unknown. Hence the name black attributed, since we just don't know. The big bang should be described as the big black bang, since it is unknown. Some would argue that the universe will continue to expand until it becomes a completely barren freezer. Others subscribe to the theory of the big crunch (black crunch). While still others in the Quantum field say that there are other parallel universes being created at this very moment via. the existing black holes. In addition, some in the cloth conceive that God started the motion in the ocean. All in all, no one knows one hundred percent positive.

Bio major is wrong...

Loop Quantum Gravity, M-Theory, Chaotic Inflation Theory, Bubble Theory...

There are many theories which predict different beginnings, I suggest you check the out on Wikipedia.

Bio major: I am a Physics major. I know what I am talking about. The entropy would be conserved in the cyclic universe, one of the reasons LQG wouldn't work, this debunks the hypothesis of a "Big Bounce". This paired with the fact that hardly anyone is a proponent of the Big Bounce Theory.

Polar Bear: Dark Matter is a form of matter which does not interact with EM radiation, which means you can't touch or see it. It actually does exert a gravitational pull though, it is very massive in fact. You are thinking of Dark Energy, which is the name of a mysterious force which drives the acceleration of the Universe, many people think it is the result of the Quantum Foam, which I will not go into.

Everyone: Wikipedia is fine, I cite it all the time, I have never cited faulty information. Also: Only one of my theories is string theory based, which I am not a proponent of.

If we go backwards through time, modern physics deteriorates at the time sacle of roughly 1e-30 seconds after the big bang. There simply is no way for us to understand the universe at such a young age, especially under the possibility that the four fundamental forces were not "seperated" at all at the beginning of the universe. And figuring out what happened before that, is something you can only currently do in your mind, for the laws that govern most of physics just didn't exist yet.

One of the theories which I have heard is the brain theory. They talk about the multiverse consisting of giant universal membranes, and 14 or so billion or so years ago, two membranes touched, creating our universe as we know it.

About the Big Crunch, I have also read about other scientists who beleive that dark matter will sustain the acceleration of the universe's size and in time the universe will have expanded so much that energy will disperse into nothingness, essentially leading to a slow death of our universe.

Well you could go with the Steady State theory, which was advocated primarily by Hoyle, and to a lesser extent by Einstein.

The Steady State theory defines the universe as everlasting, with no beginning and no end.

Needless to say, the consensus of the scientific community side with the BB and not the SS.

>If there was a big bang

There was. Also, it's normally capitalized, 'Big Bang', since so far we only know of one of them.

>what created the big bang or put it in motion?

The fact is, we just plain don't know, not yet anyway. There have been some proposals put forward (most notably brane cosmology's 'ekpyrotic model', you can look it up), but so far they are little more than educated guesses. All I can really say about it is that it was probably caused by some large natural event occurring outside our universe, possibly in a parallel universe or possibly in a 'higher' universe containing ours.

ever rubbed your feet on the carpet then touched a doorknob?

yeah... the Universe was started by a spark of static electricity.