On a linear axis, all the physics of the first second after the Big Bang collapses into an invisible dot. A logarithmic scale unties exactly that knot: the Planck epoch at 10⁻⁴³ seconds, inflation ballooning space some 10²⁶ times between 10⁻³⁶ and 10⁻³² seconds, then nucleosynthesis locking the hydrogen-to-helium ratio at 75/25 by mass after only three minutes. Light had to wait 380,000 years to break free, and it has since cooled to 2.7 K.
On a linear axis, all the physics of the first second after the Big Bang collapses into an invisible dot. A logarithmic scale unties exactly that knot: the Planck epoch at 10⁻⁴³ seconds, inflation ballooning space some 10²⁶ times between 10⁻³⁶ and 10⁻³² seconds, then nucleosynthesis locking the hydrogen-to-helium ratio at 75/25 by mass after only three minutes. Light had to wait 380,000 years to break free, and it has since cooled to 2.7 K.
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