Originally posted by red g jacks
im not really knowledgeable on physics but i thought 'explosion' was a sort of analogy for the big bang. was it a literal explosion or just a rapid expansion?
The cosmic background radiation that we observe that is commonly associated with the Big Bang is actually when the universe cooled enough to start fusion and release photons. It happened nearly universally (HA!) all at once. It was something like 300,000 to 400,000 years after the true big bang.
That does not answer your question. But, basically, what we observe as CMBR is leftovers from that cooling and fusion period.
To directly answer it, yes: shit expanded super super super fast at the very beginning.