What is "nothing"?

Question

If you think that before Big Bang there was nothing in the Universe, no space, no vacuum, just nothing; what exactly is nothing? Before the first particle ever that got created in the Universe what exactly was "nothing"?

Answer 1

You want to scare yourself?

if the universe is an expanding universe, there is a boundry out there where on one side is space, the other *nothing*.

the problem is that we perceive empty space to be nothing. this cannot be true. it is filled with substance. even in the vacuum of space, you can think of the vacuum being a fabric made up of something..

Answer 2

There are lots of ways of thinking about what nothing is, but it is impossible to think of pure nothing, because as soon as you try to think of it, you are thinking of something, so you are no longer thinking of nothing. Despite the previous, one helpfull way to think about nothing is to think that nothing might exist, which is a bazaar notion in itself, but that that nothing is off in a corner somewhere and is not where the universe is.

People are always asking how did the universe arise out of nothing. Well it did not, because what ever it arose out of had the potential to become the universe and therefore the universe's anticedent was not nothing.

Actually, empty space is not empty. It has a certain energy content of virtual particles and stray radiation. One interesting idea is that the universe was born out of a vacuum state in which the energy content of the vacuum was less than the energy content of empty space. Somehow, this made the vacuum unstable and it disintergrated into the universe. This disintergration was the event we call the big bang. it is as if the vacuum of space needs a certain energy content to make it stable. Likely, a lot of the necessary energy comes from gravity, since gravity seems to pull space in upon itself, and space seems to expand in the places where there is very little mass.

Astronomers think the expansion of the universe is accelerating. My personal theory, based mostly on nothng, is that as the universe expands the energy content of space decreases and eventually some where at some time space will achieve the unstable vacuum state that allows a big bang to happen.

Anyway, nothing is really something to think about.

Answer 3

You will not get a satisfactory answer to this question. My dictionary describes a void as nothing but science rejects this. In astronomy voids are referred to as vast spaces between galaxies but they claim that even there some particles exist. You question is one that has intrigued me for years, energy is nothing, it has no mass, yet it can be converted into mass. Suppose that before the singularity of the big bang appeared there was nothing, a true void that contained absolutely nothing, it is not beyond imagination that some kind of stress developed in this vast sea of nothing and manifested itself in the form of the singularity which had a life span of 10-43 second. In spite of the incredible energy content of this point of energy it was still nothing until thermodynamics took over and the heat began to flow into the bitter cold of the void creating the first particles, gravity, time and space. What do you think?

Answer 4

It's incomprehensible. Like trying to explain light to someone who has always been blind. They may get the basics but they will never understand it. No one has experienced "nothing." no one knows what it would be like or if it is even possible. We can come up with theories and laws about it, but in the end those laws and theories will only explain what we don't know.

The "Nothing" which can be spoken of is not the true "Nothing."

Answer 5

Even empty space is "something", because space is simply uncompressed spacetime.

*Nothing* is simply...nothing. The absence of anything and everything that is conceivable, even the absence of thought.

If you truly wish to try and comprehend "nothing", then begin studying Zen Buddhism and practice meditation.

Answer 6

perfect vacuum(no matter no energy) = nothing

space, without matter and energy, is nothing

Before the Big Bang there was the same amount of matter/energy as there is now, just it was concentrated in a small space.

Answer 7

i thought of that too, i never had a sure answer.

i think its like this, imagine a very black picture with nothing but just only black space and no life, just nothing in it.
that's it, then if it's like that, you are going to be so confused on how "something" even started when there was nothing to begin with

Answer 8

you forgot to mention the part about it being a theory. The Big Bang Theory. Nobody knows.

Answer 9

Let me quote the great philosopher Billy Preston:
"Nothing from nothing leaves nothing"

Answer 10

The space between your ears.