# Can you truly empty a box?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-truly-empty-a-box/1027794>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 18, 2026, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-truly-empty-a-box/1027794 "2026-02-18T18:09:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-truly-empty-a-box/1027794/41 "2026-02-23T17:43:31Z")

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I think I know which article inspired you to post this OP:  
[https://archive.is/ebdwR](https://archive.is/ebdwR)

> **[The Nothing That Has the Potential to Be Anything](https://www.wired.com/story/the-nothing-that-has-the-potential-to-be-anything/)**
>
> You can never truly empty a box. Why? Zero-point energy.

The first link is from the internet archive, thus not paywalled, the second one is the original, perhaps not free for all. It is different from the article linked by **Cheesesteak** in post #31

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-truly-empty-a-box/1027794/42 "2026-02-23T21:03:48Z")

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I’m bothered by the common denigration of the bowling ball analogy. Its purpose to give a visual image of how mass distorts and curves spacetime. It’s not intended to be a technical explanation of gravity, merely a way to simply express the notion that because of distortion to spacetime things fall toward the source of mass and need added energy to get up the hill and escape. The more mass, the higher the hill.

People are familiar with sliding easily down hills and working hard to climb back up. (The new winter olympic inclusion of “skimo” makes this into a competitive sport that is more instantly understood than ice dancing scoring.)

I haven’t seen any simple analogy replace this one. It has its faults, but all simple analogies do. Their attraction and usefulness lies precisely in their simplicity. Add complications and the effect is ruined.

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**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-truly-empty-a-box/1027794/43 "2026-02-24T02:00:29Z")

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Actually, I was unaware of this article.

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