We Are 99.9% Empty Space

Actually, make that 99.9999999999999%.

We are made of atoms (yeah, you dont say), but a fact that most people don't really think about is that if you were to imagine the core (nucleus) of a single atom was the size of, say, a golf ball, then the first electron that orbits it would be about 1 kilometre away from the ball, with the second being about 4, and so on.

There is NOTHING in between these spaces. Atoms are the smallest possible particle of a chemical element that retains its chemical properties. There is no air or anything else between the nucleus and the electron - apart from the odd neutron, but those things are pretty boring most of the time.

That's almost as hard to think about as what's beyond our universe.

Other interesting facts: If you were to blow a golf ball up to the size of earth than an atom would be about the size of a golf ball.

If you were to enlarge the nucleus of an atom to the size of a golf ball, it would weigh 38 billion tons.

Science is great.

This is simple, really. Nothing does not exist;--> there isn't anything beyond our universe because it never ends. As far as 'emptiness' is concerned... it also does not exist. Every space existing everywhere is filled up with 'some'thing. One cannot bring nothing into existence because it is precisely that... nothing, not existing. So, be careful because science also lies to you. Greatfully there are people like me around who think beyond the silly stuff that they splurt out to the innocent public... because I am one with the rest of ya. One shouldn't eat up all their garbage... one might become sick =)

[edit on 8-10-2006 by UbiquitousInfiniteReality]

You confuse me. Apart from the 'silly stuff that they splurt out to the innocent public,' what is in-between the spaces in an atom?

Yeah I am definitely not educated on this subject but i read about atomic weapons once, it was interesting.

It's something like there is an atom, inside that a nucleus and inside that other particles, like electrons, or photons or something.

Anyway, the splitting[termed fission i think] of the nucleus, of the said materials atom[s] [plutonium], which makes up 1lbs of mass releases the equivalent energy of 8000 tons of TNT, explosion.

amazing stuff.

anyway, i always wondered, although it is hard to understand, the universe must be expanding into something? else, how does it expand? like a balloon, u blow air into it, and there is air around it, space to expand into, and also air resistance which makes you huff and puff a little.


mind boggling
what do ya think?

[edit on 8-10-2006 by SteveG]

[edit on 8-10-2006 by SteveG]

[edit on 8-10-2006 by SteveG]

The universe is expanding, but the galaxies aren't speeding away through nothing, it's as if space itself is expanding. If that's the case, does the density of space itself decrease, and alter the laws of physics by becoming less dense? Were we 98% empty space a few million (or billion) years ago? Were "we" (theoretically speaking of course) about 10% sometime shortly after the big bang?

That would mean that we were smaller in the past, probably not significantly, but our atoms more tightly packed and therefore more dense. Would being able to change the density of space istelf speed up or slow down time?

I have heard the idea of the emptiness of atoms on a coast to coast show with a scientist or David Icke(can't really remember), and on that show he explained that human beings are collecitvely making these atoms structured and bonded and that if we were to drastically change the way in which we think, we could in effect walk through walls among other things.

this is indeed all mind boggling. I've just started reading an old book that my mum gave me called 'on the edge of the etheric' by Arthur Findlay. It's supposed to contain a theory of a scientific explaination for some paranormal occurances.
The paranormal angle aside for the moment, as I've only just started reading it, at the moment it is just discussing the science side, atoms, electrons and protons. It's quite facinating as I've never really looked into it all before.

a quote from the book

Physical matter is in reality an open network of electrons and protons, and the distance between the electrons and protons in an individual atom , in relation to it's size , is immense. If we considor the nucleus as commanding the same posistion in an atom as the sun does in our solar system, then the relative distance the electrons are apart from one another and from the protons might be taken as equivalent to the distance the planets are from each other and from the sun. If we considor an atom as something the size of a village church, then a pin-head would represent the relative size of one of the electrons of which it is composed.
These protons and electrons in the atom are thus far asunder, moving at enourmous speed, and they are linked together by this invisible ether which occupies much the greater space within the atom. Matter is thus constructed of minute electric charges, both positive and negative, not moving haphazardly, but freely and orderly, and connected together by the invisible ether which is now believed to be the basic substance of the universe

now this book was first published in 1931 and after looking up ether one definition states
ether- 'a medium that was once supposed to fill all space and to support the propagation of electromagnetic waves'
So I'm guessing my book is a bit outdated now, but the size anologies would be correct, the church and planets etc?
so if it's not ether in all of the free space between atoms and their electrons and protons, what is it? A quick google search hasn't yielded anything yet. is it truely empty space totally void of anything?

Atually there is something smaller than atoms and that is neutrinos.
Also existence is is a fabric, substance, or more like a soup of energy. For there to be nothing then anything passing into the nothing would cease to exist

[edit on 8-10-2006 by reaper2]

I believe the ouput of energy from the stars in all the galaxies are causing space to expand. Sorta like a hot air balloon and when solar out put starts to decrease in 10 billion years space will stop expanding and start contracting.

actually protons and neutrons are made of quarks, and quarks are made of smaller particles again. There are lots of subatomic particles (leptons,mesons,bosons...) which all have their specific characteristics.

I feel it's fascinating that when we touch something, we're not actually touching it. All atoms have a negative charge outside of it's electron shell. Because like charges repel, when we pick something up or stand on something, there is a huge relative distance between the electrons on our body and the ones on the object.

99.9% Electron Cloud.

Yep... I agree with Protector. Atoms are 99.9% orbitals.

These are orbitals:
winter.group.shef.ac.uk...

In this one for example: The hydrogen atom:

winter.group.shef.ac.uk...

The bond between atoms that forms a molecule is due to the outer, or valence, shell of electrons. To keep it simple (use wikipedia for a better explanation) all atoms want 8 electrons (except for hydrogen and helium, who want two) in their outer shell. An atom with 1 valence electron will want to give it up, an atom with 7 will want to take it. Therefore, you have different ways for atoms to link. In an ionic, or metalic, bond, the one with 7 valence electrons will take the electron from the atom with 1 valence electron. That will give you a positive atom (less electrons than protons) and a negative atom (more electrons than protons) and their difference in charge will form the bond. There are other types of bonds, such as covalent, hydrogen, and London dispersion forces, but they all work because of this need to give or take an electron for stability.

Originally posted by UbiquitousInfiniteReality
This is simple, really. Nothing does not exist;--> there isn't anything beyond our universe because it never ends. As far as 'emptiness' is concerned... it also does not exist. Every space existing everywhere is filled up with 'some'thing. One cannot bring nothing into existence because it is precisely that... nothing, not existing. So, be careful because science also lies to you. Greatfully there are people like me around who think beyond the silly stuff that they splurt out to the innocent public... because I am one with the rest of ya. One shouldn't eat up all their garbage... one might become sick =)

You're not making sense here... Explain why nothing can't exist. Do you believe in the aether?

Although there's "nothing" in the space, there is space there, so you have nothing and yet the fact that that space exists means that you don't have a lack of existance.

Originally posted by reaper2
Atually there is something smaller than atoms and that is neutrinos.
Also existence is is a fabric, substance, or more like a soup of energy. For there to be nothing then anything passing into the nothing would cease to exist

The claim that something passing into the nothing will cease to exist is completely unsubstantiated. Though not impossible, there's no way to say it without having a view of science that is more religious than scientific...

Smaller than atoms? Inside an atom, you have the nucleus. This nucleus is made up of protons (positive) and neutrons (neutral). The protons don't push eachother away due to the presence of strong force (wiki it). The nucleus is orbited by electrons (negative). Inside of protons and neutrons, you have quarks. Blah. Neutrinos are kind of different so you can't group them with atoms in that way.

Originally posted by bodebliss
I believe the ouput of energy from the stars in all the galaxies are causing space to expand. Sorta like a hot air balloon and when solar out put starts to decrease in 10 billion years space will stop expanding and start contracting.

And why do you believe this? Wouldn't this mean that energy in itself has a repulsive force against matter? Then why wouldn't this effect be measured anywhere?

The energy output of starts is a result of nuclear fusion. That is, the fusing of atoms' nuclei. This converts mass into energy (since, energy cannot be created or destroyed, as far as we know).




(Note to self: lern2vbcode)

[edit on 9-10-2006 by Johnmike]

Originally posted by reaper2
Atually there is something smaller than atoms and that is neutrinos.
Also existence is is a fabric, substance, or more like a soup of energy. For there to be nothing then anything passing into the nothing would cease to exist

[edit on 8-10-2006 by reaper2]

But nothing doesn't exist in the first place =) The non-existence (or existence... whatever you wanan call it) in the definition of nothing is in itself, self explanatory. Nothing defines non-existence. All we have is existence, therefore nothing is nothing. Should be burnt out of the language of mankind.

[edit on 9-10-2006 by UbiquitousInfiniteReality]

Originally posted by UbiquitousInfiniteReality

Originally posted by reaper2
Atually there is something smaller than atoms and that is neutrinos.
Also existence is is a fabric, substance, or more like a soup of energy. For there to be nothing then anything passing into the nothing would cease to exist

[edit on 8-10-2006 by reaper2]

But nothing doesn't exist in the first place =)

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.

It is frightening that people get hung on superficiality of life and never get to the depth.

We are here, today!

Get something out of it. Take it home and boil it in a pot.

Finding the underlying truths of life are a good of a life as any.

The truth is Far more exciting

We are in fact 100% space

As discussed here -> Finally an answer to EVERYTHING - Quantum Field Gravity - BRAIDS

Glad others are thinking about the true nature of reality.

NeoN HaZe.

Originally posted by UbiquitousInfiniteReality

Originally posted by reaper2
Atually there is something smaller than atoms and that is neutrinos.
Also existence is is a fabric, substance, or more like a soup of energy. For there to be nothing then anything passing into the nothing would cease to exist

[edit on 8-10-2006 by reaper2]

But nothing doesn't exist in the first place =) The non-existence (or existence... whatever you wanan call it) in the definition of nothing is in itself, self explanatory. Nothing defines non-existence. All we have is existence, therefore nothing is nothing. Should be burnt out of the language of mankind.

[edit on 9-10-2006 by UbiquitousInfiniteReality]

"nothing is where everything isn't"


i read that quote once forgotten who it was by though

There is the question of is space a fabric or emptiness. This has yet to be decided.

If it is a fabric than it is made of particles of the Planc dimensional size or 1 X 10 to the -43 or -86