How can Space exist if there is nothing there?

Question

If there is nothing physically there, how can "space" exist?

So distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, but how can there be a distance to cross if there is nothing there?

Surely if there was really 'nothing' between two objects, there would be no distance between them, thus they would be touching.

If you created 100% vacuum in a jar would it not collapse in on its self?

Answer 1

The answer to your second question is NO. Glass jars are strong enough to resist the atmospheric pressure, unless it is thin glass.

   Try creating a vacuum in a medium sized glass jar and put some thing in it. Isnt there any distance betwee the two?

   It is not necessary that there always has to be something. If there is nothing, isnt there a distance between the two?

   If you go to space and put your arms out, isnt there any distance between the two?Apply your common sense.

Answer 2

you said it , the moon is there

Answer 3

space is nothing its just " space "  

Answer 4

The term "Space" is used to describe an area above the earth over 62.1 miles. This is the official definition of space, and the word therefore is just used to describe what lies beyond the 62.1 mile high boundary (or the karman line). There is no end to earth's atmosphere, it simply gets thinner and thinner infinitely, which is why we have the boundary. So there is still stuff in space, and there is no 100% vacuum, so it does exist.

Answer 5

I get what you mean the reason why it is called space is because if we didn'e call it that what would we call it.  There is a vacuum in space so this is probably why it is called space.  The earth and the moon don't touch is because the moon is in orbit around the earth.  The moon doesn't touch the earth because gravity has a balance.  Basically the moon is not close enough to earth to fall to the earth and it is not so far away that it floats up into space.

Hope that helps

=]

Answer 6

Distance isn't really a "thing" hence no-thing doesn't imply no-distance. It is an abstract quantity that two objects have with respect to each other independent of everything else that may be going on around them. True one can say how can space "exist", but that doesn't seem to be what you are arguing based on the rest of your points.

Space isn't actually truly empty. Within a vacuum there are always particles being continuously created and destroyed; quantum fluctuations that occur, statistically because they can (the ergotic principle). But this isn't really the issue you've got in mind.

I can see your reasoning from the jar: e.g. take two objects seperated by 10cm, put a vacuum between them and hey presto there's no distance between them anymore.

As to the 100% vacuum in a jar:- the jar collapses because of external pressure not because of internal suction. The molecules of the air outside the jar are continually colliding with it pushing the jar inwards. When there is a vacuum in the jar there is no counter force of molecules pushing back on it to balance it. Hence it will collapse. This analogy cannot extend to a space vacuum as there isn't a jar that contains space with air pressure outside of it. Space is considered unbounded. Vacuum is the norm and where pressure pockets occur in space (e.g. stars and planets) the force that pushes them out into the vacuum is balanced by their gravitational force towards each other.

Ok so in this case if your 100% vacuum jar is placed inside a 100% vacuum it won't collapse (implode) as there is just as much force applied to make it blow out (explode) - (actually these two balanced forces are zero anyway but lets just stick with the balance of forces idea for the time). Same with the earth and moon. There's a vacuum in between but there's also vacua on either side and a balance of forces! So in this case no the earth and moon aren't suddenly sucked together by the lack of stuff between but stay apart in a balanced fashion giving a relatively consistent distance between them.

Answer 7

there are plenty of things in space, just not gravity

Answer 8

There's no matter in a vacuum, but every bit of vacuum in the universe is permeated by various wavelengths of radiation of one sort of another. IE, no matter, but lots of energy. Not only is energy something, it's everything, matter is really just frozen energy in a manner of speaking.

So there really isn't any such thing as a true vacuum, there's just areas where there is almost no solid matter. Your question only arises because you think of matter as "something" and energy as "nothing." In reality both (matter and energy) are different forms of the same thing, and there is no problem.

Answer 9

Space is something, probably the only thing that actually exists in the universe, besides time.  Outside the universe (which doesn't really exist) is the only place that is truly "nothing".  Space could be described as an electromagnetic field, with varying degrees of wave amplitude at any given time.  It's also a gravitational field, and whatever other forces it can carry (which, according to GUT, are all the same thing).  Matter and energy are just fluctuations in this field, propagating like waves on the surface of a pond.

Answer 10

The fact is, space is full of gases and dust. Most people regard it as empty because of the absence of "air".

Assuming a perfect vacuum was possible, then it would absent of matter. Space is not a perfect vacuum and contains alot of matter.  

Answer 11

"Nothing" in space is a misconception. Space is full of stuff, we just can't see or measure it with our crude instruments. There's space-time continuum, which can be bent by gravity. In this space-time continuum, virtual particles come in and out of existence all the time. Space is bustling with quantum activity.

Completely empty space doesn't exist. There was one experiment when two metal plates were suspended in a deep vacuum. Over the time, those two plates moved towards each other very slightly, indicating that there were some forces at work even in the vacuum.

As the scientists say, vacuum is the state of lowest energy. There can never be a state of no energy.

Answer 12

There is no matter in the space between the Earth and Moon, but there are the dimensions themselves. However, space is not an absolutely perfect vacuum, as there are random particles floating around.

If you created a 100% vacuum, it would only collapse if the negative pressure was greater than the breaking strength of the enclosure. This, however, has not been created (at least not at the macroscopic level).

I would recommend reading up on vacuums and other subatomic physics. It'll give you a better understanding. The wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum) should give you a good starter (as would "A Brief History of Time" and "The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking).

Answer 13

welll, we walk through nothing... which is air.. space has gas in it.... air that we just cant breathe but its still there

Answer 14

Thats why its called space. Duh.

Answer 15

You're confusing the concept of 'nothing' as 'distance between objects' and 'nothingness', which is the lack of objects. When we say there is nothing but space between the Earth and moon, we are using these two bodies to define the distance between them. If you can imagine a Universe without objects, then the concept of 'space' cannot exist, since there is no way to distinguish distance. This would be true 'nothingness', but since there are objects, there is 'space' to define them, and distance between them.  

Answer 16

Good question! Why doesn't the universe implode in on itself?

The "Space" isn't really empty. There are plenty of particles in Space, just they are very very far apart. It isn't a vacuum.

Also, scientists believe 74% of the Universe is Dark Energy, which obviously cannot be seen, but seems to be inferred by the observation that not only is the Universe not collapsing in on itself, it appears to be expanding at an ever faster rate.

Answer 17

I'm no professional but isn't the earth itself IN space?  The earth isn't seperate from space and we are all here, living and breathing!!!

P.S.  What the h**l is the point of the 'Jaguar' guy's answer?  I seriously doubt that he actually owns one, or else it's a rusted out hoopty and he probably works at McDonald's.

Answer 18

who said "there's nothing in space"?

of course there is something.

like galaxies and planets.

hmm, im not sure if im right but it does make sense.

Answer 19

the point is there could be something there

that could be is the whole nature of space

also if you look at very small scales there are vacuum fluctuations so that could be has a real physical reality, at least for short periods of time

Answer 20

Just because you can't touch something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Space is full of radiation, radio waves, light etc etc. There has to be space for matter to exist in and not all space has matter in it - just the potential for it.

Answer 21

Don't say that space is nothing. It is a four-dimensional matter that has been made by God to keep three-dimensional objects like galaxies, planets and us.

Answer 22

the other night i was listening to a space program  from england

on my shortwave radio at 3:30 am while looking at amazing galaxies and nebula's  and thinking  wow there is so much in space to look at with my telescop. After that the astronomer on there said  nothing is there, space is empty ....that was mindblowing seeing that in my telescope and hearing that space was empty on the radio and their discussion about it after what i saw .

nothing to do with the question i know ..thought i'd share that out of interest.

Answer 23

There's wind in space, so obviously there are gases there, so it's not "nothing".

Answer 24

Taking your question as hypothetical and meaning pure space, even though there may be no matter there, it still possesses the attribute of dimension.  Imagine eight stars forming the vertices of a cube.  They enclose a space which is determined by the distances and angles between them.  I think I know where you are coming from and the best way to see it is that space, no matter how void, can have dimensions determined by surrounding objects.

Don't forget: there's a heck of a lot of empty space in atoms, too.  In fact, between electron orbitals it's more of a void than outer space.