[Hodar]

As I understand things, the distribution of elements from a 'pure energy' perspective, should be very heavy in the Hydrogen, Helium and taper to a stop around Fe (iron). From a single Big Bang, very complex atoms with a higher atomic weight than iron would be practially non-existant.

That doesn't match reality, because we have tons of Silicon, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Copper, Zinc. As you move up the Periodic Table, the frequency of these elements get more and more rare.

[Hodar]

Darn, I didn't complete my thought; sorry.

So, as the distribution of elements that 'ought' to appear from the 'original' big bang -aka the Singularity- didn't appear, the theory goes that there was a Bang, a contraction and then another Bang, and another contraction and then another Bang (I believe the guess is 5 Bangs to get to where we are today).

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

The heavier elements are created in supernovae. Every atom in your body, except for the hydrogen, has been through a star at least one time.

[burzum]

Nice try. The Big Bang theory predicts that after the universe cooled to a point where atoms could form (in the first couple of minutes), hydrogen dominated at about 90%, helium followed at about 10%, and minute traces of deuterium (0.015%) and lithium formed. Eventually stars formed and through nuclear fusion higher elements formed. What is interesting is that depending upon the size of the star, only certain elements could form. For example, in smaller stars fusion could only produce up to oxygen. But even in the largest stars, the highest that could be produced by fusion is iron (so that it could remain an exothermic reaction). To form elements past iron, the star had to supernova (which produced elements up to uranium).

Based upon these theories, you would see that most of the universe would be hydrogen, followed by helium. And you would see waste that was blown off of stars (and perhaps forming future generation stars) would be relatively high in elements with an atomic mass less than iron but very low in elements higher than iron. Certain elements such as iron and oxygen (that represent an end to a chain of reactions) would have extremely high concentrations.

This is one of the reasons that the Big Bang Theory has so much support. It's because nuclear physics works like clockwork.

[IronJack]

As I understand things, the distribution of elements from a 'pure energy' perspective, should be very heavy in the Hydrogen, Helium and taper to a stop around Fe (iron).

I'm not sure where you're getting this but I'll accept it for the sake of argument.

That doesn't match reality, because we have tons of Silicon, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Copper, Zinc.

Right. Carbon, Nitrogen, Silicon, and Oxygen are all way lower in the Periodic Table than Iron, so adopting your theory, you would expect them to be more plentiful. Copper and Zinc are in the same row. Titanium and Vanadium are actually LOWER than Iron in the PT. So you would expect them to be MORE abundant, but in fact they're relatively rare.

As you move up the Periodic Table, the frequency of these elements get more and more rare.

And they do, generally speaking. So you've just defeated our own argument. Or did I misunderstand something?

[GregoryFul]

The heavier elements are formed in the crucible of stars and supernovae.