is nothing something?

Question

i hold my hand in a vaccuum, between my hand and the top of the vaccuum ther is nothing but it has space and that space is something. is nothing something?

karebear - there is no air in a vaccuum - i have loved this question since high school i graduated in 71

if something takes up time and space, and is without light and is at absolute zero, without anyone around to see or feel it, but it is there - it exists. if there is a point between two stars that fit the criteria - it is there. in the realm of possibilty there is such a space and if there is a space there is something

kerris i think you are thinking of matter where temperature exists or makes a difference - i m not

superobotz definition? what is that except one man's interpertation of what is?

nate - you are wrong something has no definition - if you have two inches by two inches of absolutely no elelments you still have time and space. a cube of nothing will always be something - i think einstein would agrre

as long as i can see from point a to point b even though there is nothing there it exists because in fact it is there devoid of anything

i think that those who presume to be smart lokk to no physical elemnts no particles no air no temperture but that is exactly the point if something has time and space without anything it is something. they are synomyns

Answer 1

this is one of phylosophical questions i really like! but i also don't know the answer for sure. just according to my logical mind, i think the answer is YES. if it's not something, people will not be willing to find a word to describe it. and the space is not nothing because without it everything will be crazy.

Answer 2

NO! Nothing is exactly that - nothing. Nothing is not a "thing;" rather, it is an absence of a thing. At some point, matter or 'stuff' is removed until there is nothing left to remove. When you get to a point where no more of something can be removed, there is nothing left.

For example: there is a temperature that we call "absolute zero." This is the point where there is no heat left. The coldness is not a "thing," but a "nothing." There is a complete absence of heat. Cold is just the word we use to describe the lack of heat. It can keep getting hotter and hotter, but it can't get colder and colder once there is absolutely no more heat.

Another example: It can only get so dark. Dark is the complete absence of light. Light can be measured, but once the light is gone, there is no more that can be removed. Once it's dark, it's dark - no more light. So the darkness is "nothing" not a 'something.'

So in your case, with the vacuum, a vacuum is an absence of air. Once there is no more air, all of the "something" is gone - there is no more. No air is left in that space - nothing is there. If the vacuum were in a clear object, it is possible that there could still be light inside of it, but not actual matter.

So, for everyone who's saying that nothing is something, their logic is rather flawed. Nothing is exactly what it says.

Answer 3

Well, gramatically speaking, "nothing" is ALWAYS something, because you just gave that nothing a name: "nothing." So therefore, the "nothing" of space would be something.

But no, in the way you are asking. Nothing is DEFINATELY not something. The point of a vacuum is that there is NOTHING in it. If there is nothing, it takes up no space, and there has no existance.

However, in OUTER space, there are things. Random particles, like oxygen, carbon dioxide, particles of astronaut urine, stars, etc. Those take up volume. But the "space" that surrounds them has no space. Make sense? Space is just the word used to describe the "thing" that something is in. Space takes up no space because it IS space.

Answer 4

If your hand was in a true vacuum, first you would not have a hand, and also, it would not be a true vacuum, even space is not a true vacuum. Is nothing something, of course not, but everything we know has something so it is very hard to imagine nothing, as long as we are imagining it, there must be something. Nothing can not be seen, or even considered as something if it is truly void of anything.

Answer 5

There is something there. If you take a laser into orbit with a frequency of 10 to -13 or higher,aid shoot it into space, it does not go in a straight line. it kinda wavers. What is bending it?

I read books, not so much websites, but you could look up beer bubble theory

Answer 6

Good question Rich.
Everyone that answered yes is scientifically correct (in the physical universe). The religious answer tells us that Nothing exists in death. For it is written in Ecclesiastes 9:5 NIV: For the living know that they will die, but the dead know NOTHING; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

Answer 7

Wait, I'm confused, is this a 'vaccuum' as defined by science (which normally is not completely empty, just very empty) or is it actually nothing? Nothing is nothing and a vaccuum is something.

Answer 8

YES
There is no area of 'nothing' really. All space has light radiation going through it, or something is affecting it with forces somehow, or else how could you tell it was even there?

Answer 9

No. Everything (something) is nothing because if the only way to tell if something exists is to compare it to nothing, then there is really only nothing in totality.

Answer 10

No one thing that we humans know of is limitless - not even the universe - therefore, all things have boundaries. "Nothing" has finite boundaries by your definition, so a thing that has boundaries must, in fact, be "something" for it to have finite boundaries in the first place.