[Gugel]

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Just after the big bang were the laws of nature different than what we think of them today?

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There are four known forces that are responsible for the Universe as we know it: Strong Interaction, Electromagnetism, Weak Interaction, and Gravity. On a side note, the strong interaction is what holds atoms together. With the electromagnetic force, you would think protons would repel each other since they are all positively charged. When the protons are extremely close to each other, however, the strong force kicks in and binds them. It is much, much stronger than electromagnetism.

Anyway, at high enough temperatures, these forces unify. Since the Universe at some point was infinitely hot, these forces were unified. Gravity was the first to separate, followed by the strong interaction, and finally by a decoupling of the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction.

In short, the laws of physics were completely different immediately following the Big Bang. Gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force were the same thing.