How loud was the big bang?

Answer 1

Sound needs a material through which vibrations can be transmitted, so when the Big Bang occurred there wouldn't have been a way to 'hear' it. Also, the Big Bang contained the entire known universe, so there wouldn't have been any place to release energy into... However, if we could assume that something of that amount of energy could be experienced...

First you have to calculate the energy released by the Big Bang.

But first....One ton of TNT releases energy equivalent to 4.2x10^9 joules.

The energy released by the Big Bang is inherent in the total mass/energy of the universe today.

This is about 9.5 x 10^53 megatons of TNT.

This is about 3.9x10^69 joules (correction needed?)

Now, once you're done doing that math, take into consideration that the typical units for expressing the intensity of a sound wave are Watts/meter squared.

Also take into consideration, at 160dB, the sound wave will instantly perforate your eardrum. This is about 1x10^4 W/m squared.

1 joule = 1 wattsecond, which is 1 watt per second.

So the big bang could have released 3.9x10^69 watts...per meter squared?...in a single second. (correction needed?)

The threshold of hearing is assigned a sound level of 0 decibels (abbreviated 0 dB); this sound corresponds to an intensity of 1*10-12 W/m2. A sound which is 10 times more intense ( 1*10-11 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 10 dB. A sound which is 10*10 or 100 times more intense ( 1*10-10 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 20 db. A sound which is 10*10*10 or 1000 times more intense ( 1*10-9 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 30 db. A sound which is 10*10*10*10 or 10000 times more intense ( 1*10-8 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 40 db. Observe that this scale is based on powers or multiples of 10. If one sound is 10x times more intense than another sound, then it has a sound level which is 10*x more decibels than the less intense sound.

In a nutshell, this is a reeeeeeeeeeeeeally big noise!

Answer 2

The Planck time: 10-43 seconds. After this time gravity can be considered to be a classical background in which particles and fields evolve following quantum mechanics. A region about 10-33 cm across is homogeneous and isotropic, The temperature is T=1032K. - "A Brief History of the Universe", Prof. Edward L. (Ned) Wright, UCLA

Answer 3

The Big Bang was not a sound that traveled through the atmosphere like we think of sound today. It was an explosion of energy and matter that occurred throughout the universe, creating the universe's expansion. The sound waves generated by the Big Bang were intense but would not have been audible to human ears.