Vacuum in space is defined as “Nothing”. Is there any element in nothing?

Answer 1

Right, mathwhiz up there had the right idea. Even in a vacuum, there's something. He's referring to an effect of quantum mechanics called "quantum foam" or zero-point energy.

To imagine what it's like, let's take a piece of velcro as an example. If you had a sqare of velcro, and you looked at it from 10 meters away, you'd see... a black square that looks smooth. If you looked at it from 10 centimeters away, you might see some fuzziness and whatnot - enough to know that it's not perfectly smooth, but you can't make out any details. If you looked at it from 10 millimeters away, you'd see that it's absolutely FULL of loops, snags, and all different kinds of texture. This same thing happens with the vacuum of space. From the normal (and even close) distances, space looks... well, empty. That's why it's called a vacuum, because for the longest time we thought it was devoid of any matter. Then quantum mechanics stepped in.

Mathematics showed us that if we had the capacity to look really, really, really, really closely, we could see something just like what you see on velcro. The fabric of spacetime in a vacuum isn't empty... it's a frothing, roiling sea of virtual particles and quantum fluctuations. Because scientists first thought of it as a frothing, pitching sea, the term "quantum foam" was coined - like the foam in coastal surf.

Now, on this level, particles are constantly and spontaneously being created out of nothing, then annihilating themselves. They're created through the wonderment that is the world's most famous equation: E= MC^2. Essentially, this equation states that matter and energy are one in the same, just in different forms. So, because the "vacuum" of space has energy, this energy randomly manifests itself to create virtual-particle pairs. But what's in the name, "virtual-particle pairs?" Well, they're called 'virtual' because these particles are created and annihilated so quickly that they (ordinarily) have no real effect on spacetime whatsoever (I'll address an exception in a little bit). Now, these particles will always come in pairs, because there are ALWAYS produced a particle and it's antiparticle pair. In this way, the law of conservation of energy (the first law of thermodynamics) is followed, because they annihilate themselves, eliminating their mass and returning the energy to the quantum foam of spacetime. If you want to read about what this means for black holes, I recently answered a threat entitled "Can black holes be destroyed?" in the Astronomy forum - it talks about these virtual-particle pairs and how they allow black holes to evaporate.

Now, about that exception. Remember how I talked about how ordinarily, virtual-particle pairs are created and annihilated so quickly that they have no real bearing on the universe at all? Well, there's an exception (the only one I'm aware of, but I'll wager that there are more). This phenomenon is called "The Casimir Effect". See, if you take two metal plates and you hold them really, really, really close (down to about the width of an atom, I think), they'll suddenly suck in. Why? Because, believe it or not, there are more virtual-particle pairs being created outside the plates than there are on the inside (because there's not very much room between those plates). The effect - the pressure outside the plates pushes them towards each other! Isn't that crazy? The particles that we can't even detect, that only mathematics predicts exist, are having a very real effect on something as big as a metal plate.

Amazing!

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

a perfect vaccuum is an area of space that is completely void of matter...so a vacuum is actually the absence of matter...if "nothing" were some type of particle, element or energy...then nothing wouldn't really be nothing. Think of it like this...an airconditioner doesn't actually make the air cooler...what it does is pull the heat energy out of the particles of air. So the "cool" that you feel is the absence of heat...or more to the point...those particles of air pulling the heat energy from the particles in your body...

Answer 3

As people mentioned, there are various quantum particles... however more classically there still is something... electromagnetic fields, gravity waves, etc... As long as there is some matter in the universe, there will be a gravitational field surrounding it. You can go a trillion light years away but the gravitational field will still be there (of course it will be extraordinarily small)... Some scientists think of gravity fields in terms of particles called gravitons.

So, unless you are talking about some sort of ideal mathematical space you will always have "something"... there is no such thing as "nothing" in the physical world that we occupy.

Answer 4

Compare vacuum with zero. Vacuum is referred to as absence of matter. So there are no elements.

In engineering field though, low pressures are often called vacuum. In that case matter is present in vacuum.

Answer 5

Since "Nature abhors a vacuum" [I forget who the quote is from, sorry], space consists of approximately 1 hydrogen atom per cubic centimeter and other sub atomic particles as well.

Answer 6

No . . . According to Quantum Physics, vacuum is actually this soup of randomly appearing and dissapearing subatomic particles (don't know how they did that) , but they aren't elements.

Answer 7

The substance of the vacuum is aether. Also space is filled with quantum fluctuations or zero point energy.

Answer 8

theoretically, vaccum in space should be mostly empty. but they've found out that this is not necessarily so, as various elementary particles (and their anti-matter counterparts) constantly wink in and out of existence in a vacuum. however, so long as the sum total of the universe's mass and ebergy remains constant, then no fundamental physical principles are violated.

Answer 9

Elements are matter, "nothing" is a complete absence of matter.

There are no elements in nothing.

Answer 10

"Nothing" is simply a void for "Something" and therefore is an unknown entity within itself...manifesting itself within the void...and then it becomes timeless. It represents Infinity. No beginning...no ending.