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Anttech
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What happens to all the Nothing in a vacuum when you fill the vacuum with something?
Why, nothing of course.Originally posted by Anttech
What happens to all the Nothing in a vacuum when you fill the vacuum with something?
Originally posted by hypnagogue
Uh oh. It's "nothing II: the return of nothing!" Amazing how 22 pages of posts can be generated ex nihilo.
Originally posted by Eh In answer to the question, it would be appear that there is no such thing as a complete vacuum. Since empty space does not exist, one can't ask what happens to it when it gets filled.
Originally posted by Eh
Yes, though I don't know why matter should have some kind of different status as a "thing".
I should also mention there are other "things" in space such as gravitational waves and all that quantum stuff that also rule out the existence of a perfect vacuum.
Originally posted by Ontoplankton
I think it's more natural to see the distance between two points (or something defined locally that defines such distances) as a property of space (or as a part of what "space" means), rather than as a thing in space. It coheres better with descriptions of space as being curved as well as with the phrase "vacuum solution" (of GR).
True, but do these make a vacuum impossible, or just impossible in our universe?
Originally posted by Eh
Well the problem seems to be that the field defines space itself, rather than being something in space.
The simplest explanation seems to be that space has no independent existence of gravitational field and so a true vacuum doesn't exist.
Originally posted by Ontoplankton
I've heard that you can reformulate general relativity that way. I don't know whether the loopy formulation is simpler than the standard formulation, though. (Do all those in the know agree that it is, or is this controversial?)
But isn't that just because you decided to call something "the gravitational field" which we used to call "space"? As I understand it, in classical mechanics or special relativity no one calls it "the gravitational field", and what we've learned in GR is that space(time) is actually curved, and this is what causes (or constitutes) gravity.
Intuitively, I think of a vacuum as something that still has distances in it, rather than something formless and distanceless. I don't have any problems with curved vacua.
Originally posted by Eh
If the metric were to somehow vanish, then distance between points would shrink to zero and the manifold itself would vanish as well.
However, the point to stress is that this curved spacetime (and hence space as well) or gravitational field is a definite something rather than the nothing our intuition makes us believe space is.
The concept of "nothing" refers to the absence of any matter, energy, or space. It is important in science because it allows us to understand the universe and its origins. The existence of "nothing" can help us explain how matter and energy came into existence and how the universe has evolved.
This is a philosophical question that has been debated for centuries. In terms of scientific understanding, "nothing" as a complete absence of any matter or energy is difficult to achieve. Even in the vacuum of space, there are still particles and waves present. Therefore, it can be argued that "nothing" cannot truly exist in its purest form.
If all matter is removed from a vacuum, it will still have energy present in the form of electromagnetic radiation and virtual particles. The vacuum will also have a measurable energy level, known as vacuum energy. This is due to the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics.
The Big Bang theory states that the universe began as a singularity, a point of infinite density and temperature. This singularity can be seen as a form of "nothing" as it is a state of no space, time, or matter. The expansion of the singularity led to the creation of the universe as we know it today.
No, it is not possible to create a complete vacuum on Earth. Even in highly controlled laboratory settings, there will always be some particles and radiation present. However, scientists can create a vacuum that is close to a perfect vacuum, with extremely low levels of matter and energy present.