So an object magnetically levitated in a vacuum chamber in a lab is “in space”?
We’re going down the “featherless biped” route here.
I would classify earth as a container of sorts, though we typically use the word ON instead of IN when it comes to planetary objects. We don’t live IN earth, we live IN our house. And our house is ON earth, which is IN space. Obviously a human doesn’t live IN space without a spacesuit, but earth and everything else does just fine in space. So no, I don’t think we live in space. And I’m not sure I’d say the astronauts on the ISS live in space either, though they have a much stronger case for it than we do,
The question is if using the term “space” in that geocentric context is useful. Earth is in space, the IIS is in space, but neither you or an astronaut is ever exposed to the vacuum even if they are on a space walk.
The definition of space is somewhat arbitrary, and requireds qualification to be exact but in the geocentric context.
Kármán Line: 100 km
You become a US astronaut: 80 km
And there are others heights even within individual agencies and countries.
Earth is in space, we live in space, but you can use the term space to reference points outside of high in the Earth’s atmosphere if the Earth is your chose frame of reference.
Perhaps consider it like the word “outside”.
A refrenced thing can be “outside” of:
[ul]
[li]the box[/li][li]the room[/li][li]the house[/li][li]the town[/li][li]the state[/li][li]the country[/li][li]the world[/li][li]the solar system[/li][li]the galaxy[/li][/ul]
*Space *is everywhere, just like *outside *is everywhere except for what you ware talking about at that particular time. Although space can also be used to describe a location something is “in” in an inclusive fashion unlike the typical use of “outside”.
The context is absolutely critical to the meaning.
Yes semantics. When we use the word “space” in this context we invariably mean “outer space” and shorten it. We don’t live in that sort of “space”. If you want to call what’s left “inner space”, go ahead. If not just say we are in Earth-bound space.
Really freak the kid out - tell him we live on islands of rock floating around on an ocean of hot molten magma. And that the moon is falling toward the Earth, and the Earth likewise is falling toward the sun. You’ll either spark an interest in science or have to start saving up for therapy bills.
But I love children’s science questions like “Do we live in space?”. Sometimes they catch you out and force you to really think about these things in new ways.
I think he did get freaked out. He wanted to read a much less controversial “Curious George” book yesterday instead of a science book.
It seems like the best answer is that we don’t actually live in space-- I’ll go with that.
Change the subject–tell him that the sun is a star. Then explain again how Earth is a planet and it revolves around our local star.
Give him some time to wrestle with it, then ask him if he thinks we live in space.
You may still be having this conversation with him, off and on, for years.