With special relativity, how long did the famous 10^-33 seconds after the Big Bang actually last?

Well...you actually mean 10^-43 seconds. The number 10^-33 refers to the Planck Scale in centimeters. Every observer will see this as an indicator of the LOCAL graininess of time. The concept of a true distant observer is almost meaningless because the size of the 'observable' universe is equal to 10^-43 seconds x light speed = 10^-33 centimeters. There are no distant observers. Special relativity also does not work in these highly curved spaces and is irrelevant to describing what is going on in any physical reference frame at that time.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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