Pondering the universe

[LSLGuy]

@wolfpup

@Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker

Then try to understand the concept of “nothing,” whatever it is. It’s definitely not empty space, because that’s still “something” (courtesy of N.D. Tyson).

Empty space, like the vacuum of outer space, is actually a very busy place, filled with vibrating quantum fields representing all the fundamental particles, and in which particle-antiparticle pairs are always spontaneously popping into existence and annihilating each other.

Here’s a post from last night that coincidentally touches on exactly these points. Written by somebody with a pretty good, albeit non-professional, grasp of this topic:

­xkcd thread

Disappointing. A vacuum is hardly empty. It’s a seething landscape of quantum fluctuations. What if half the glass was truly empty? It would mean that the vacuum in that region has decayed to a ground state with zero energy or anything else. How much lower this ground state is than the vacuum we live in is unknown, but it’s undoubtedly huge. Quite possibly on the order of 10100 joules per cubic meter. Regardless, this bubble of truly empty space would expand at the speed of light as nearby va…