Why everything appears to be "floating" in space

As things get smaller they also get lighter. For example

the weight of a single atom of carbon is 0.00000000000000000000019942 grams.

www.ask.com...

The oxygen we breath seems to just float around only moving from the wind or a larger object pushing it about. objects can even be denser like a rain cloud just floating above us ready to make us break out the umbrella at any given moment. The point I'm trying to make is things appear to "float" even though they do have mass (even if its not much mass). Our universe as far as we know is "infinite" therefore anything inside our universe would be smaller than an atom (you can't even scale anything in an infinite space). Even the largest known galaxy in our universe would be smaller than an atom. This (in my opinion) causes everything to appear to just "float" in space. Even though we can measure an objects mass or weight in the large scale of the universe its still basically 0 so we just "float" through space. I feel our universe is really just like a giant ocean (I created another topic on that).

reply to post by LightSource


Can you refine your definition of "float".

According to generally accepted definitions things float when they displace more than the mass of their volume.
Freefall is not floating, it is falling. In this universe everything is falling (unless something gets in its way), not floating.


en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by LightSource


Things don't actually change their size just because they are in space.

(There are relativistic and inflation changes, but that's not what I think the OP is about).

If they don't change their size, why wuld you think that they are acting as if they are smaller?

Also, if a rain cloud is denser than the air we breathe closer to ground level, why is it "floating" above us. Don't denser objects sink?

reply to post by chr0naut


Things do get smaller when surrounded by other things however, naked bare space is a pretty clean vacuum which will expand things . But it starts off in the largest form first then clump and pressurize then after a while gravity effects start to kick in and they get even more pressurized.

Also worth a mention while im here, since theres no fixed point of space that is truly "the middle" everything is always moving, never floating but coasting off the last 'push' or 'pull' they got. And all you have to reference is everything else, which is also moving, luckily this is not as confusing as it sounds because the things we use to say where our planet is, move, very very very slowly from our perspective.

Phage
reply to post by LightSource

 

Can you refine your definition of "float".

According to generally accepted definitions things float when they displace more than the mass of their volume.
Freefall is not floating, it is falling. In this universe everything is falling (unless something gets in its way), not floating.


en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 3/27/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

To say that things are "falling" -according to the generally accepted definition, would mean that they are moving down in relation to something else?

There is no up or down in space so this description, although fulfilling most facets of what is seemingly happening, is an Earth based perception that intuitively doesn't make sense in space due to the limitations of using Euclidian geometry to visualize ( for example what dimension is the Earth falling into/against?).

Proponents of Superfluid Vacuum Theory suggests that space itself has a density at the quantum scale meaning all objects of Mass within space are simply moving through a multidimensional space density gradient under the influence of energy conservation (i.e gravity).

For an object with mass to move without breaking up in Space, all (quantum) parts of the objects have to move exactly the same distance.
Hence we see objects seemingly move in orbits when in fact they are moving in relatively straight lines THROUGH the curvature generated by space density gradient.

Space (or the kind of Space that seemingly pulls the strings of our physical universe at the Quantum scale) does not stop at the Earths atmosphere.
When we observe an atom and we predominantly see more " space" than mass we must acknowledge that the mechanics of the Atom rely on this "space" and this "space" is asserting the same rules that we see in conventional space (i.e the alleged expanses of "nothingness"( except gas and particles) between objects with mass.

Floating might better be described as the effect of witnessing a quantum "drag" on objects with mass (and therefore quantum components) within a finite timescale of observation.

reply to post by LightSource


The illusion of "floating" is only relative. Like speed. For example, if you are "floating" in the vacuum of space and an object is coming toward you at 80,000 kps, how do you know that you are the one sitting still, and not the other way around?

I thought this was going to be about dark matter or anti matter and things like how there are really no gaps between the stars or how there could be something connecting everything in the universe.

chr0naut
reply to post by LightSource

 

Also, if a rain cloud is denser than the air we breathe closer to ground level, why is it "floating" above us. Don't denser objects sink?

edit on 27/3/2014 by chr0naut because: (no reason given)

A rain cloud is NOT denser than the air we breathe. It is water vapor, or H2O, which has a molecular mass of 18. The air we breathe is mostly diatomic oxygen and nitrogen, with molecular masses of 32 and 28, respectively. There is a formula to determine the density of moist air. It is p =1/v= (p / Ra T) (1 + x) / (1 + x Rw / Ra), where p = pressure in the humid air ,Ra = 286.9 - the individual gas constant air (J/kg K), Rw = 461.5 - the individual gas constant water vapor (J/kg K), and, x = specific humidity or humidity ratio (kg/kg).
That is why clouds are held aloft by heavier air.

Phage

According to generally accepted definitions things float when they displace more than the mass of their volume.
Freefall is not floating, it is falling. In this universe everything is falling (unless something gets in its way), not floating.

Come on Phage, give the man some room ... explain it to him in layman terms.

reply to post by Jukiodone


A more accurate term would be suspension. While the brain will cause many to immedialtly think of string suspending a styrene ball painted like a planet one should think more along the lines of cough syrup where by the medicinal constituents even at the atomic and sub atomic levels are held suspended by the viscous sucralous medium surrounding them. Movement occurs when these particles are acted on by forces applied to directly or indirect to the particles or medium. In the case of the universe, gravity, rotation, solar winds, etc.

Just my 2 cents, certainly not worth a nickle

I think the correct term for movement "stuff" in space would be drifting.

The only time particles start moving contrary to the big bang's direction, is gravity created from clumping matter.

Then the matter clumps to make stars and planets and moons, then the stars act on each other and become galaxy's.

reply to post by F4guy


Good description. But isn't a dark cloud also water vapor which has accumulated around a very tiny piece of dust, which forms drops or droplets? Is all the vapor encasing a piece of solid, or is the vapor itself held together, as a cloud, by some interconnecting force which works on the water vapor itself?

What?

Mass is due to density, not just volume. A tennbis ball size of lead will weigh more than a bin bag full of feathers.

Not sure what you mean by 'float' as it's far too vague a term, but the reason an objects motion appears to be static is due to conservation of momentum and moving at the same speed as the surrounding area. (i.e you may think you're stationary sat infront of your computer but you're moving at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, you just can't feel it as the Earth is moving at the same speed.)

Aleister
reply to post by F4guy

 

Good description. But isn't a dark cloud also water vapor which has accumulated around a very tiny piece of dust, which forms drops or droplets? Is all the vapor encasing a piece of solid, or is the vapor itself held together, as a cloud, by some interconnecting force which works on the water vapor itself?

Once the vapor forms a droplet, often around a nucleus of dust as you suggested, it is no longer water vapor. It has phase changed from H2O(g) to H2O(l). Water molecules, whether gas or liquid, have an affinity for hanging around together partly because water is a polar molecule. A water molecule looks a little like a Mickey Mouse head, with the oxygen atom being the head proper and the 2 hydrogen atoms the ears. Because the oxygen is more electonegative than the hydrogen, the charge is not uniform across the molecule. Mickey's chin is a little negative which slightly attracts a nearby Mickey's ears. And so on.

The reason everything seems to float in space is because there is no up or down. There isn't a "floor" of the universe. You can't, gravitationally, compare the system of the universe to the system of earth. There is no singular mass that everything would move towards. You can't compare a molecule of oxygen in earth's atmosphere to a planet in the universe.

reply to post by F4guy

Thanks, answers my question perfectly and in detail. Appreciated.

bjarneorn

Phage

According to generally accepted definitions things float when they displace more than the mass of their volume.
Freefall is not floating, it is falling. In this universe everything is falling (unless something gets in its way), not floating.

Come on Phage, give the man some room ... explain it to him in layman terms.

I was thinking (almost) the same thing.

On another note, using Wikipaedia as a reference isn't very reliable.
The amount of mistakes that can be found (especially in the various fields of Science) is very unscholarly.

reply to post by Unrealised

You have a problem with an article about Archimedes' principle? Did they get it wrong?
Or is it Archimedes' principle which you would like to contest?

reply to post by Jukiodone

To say that things are "falling" -according to the generally accepted definition, would mean that they are moving down in relation to something else?

No. Free falling objects exhibit acceleration solely due to gravity. Direction (down) is not relevant in space.

Satellites orbiting the Earth are in free fall.
The Moon is in free fall around the Earth.
The Earth is in free fall around the sun.

Nothing is free falling, its spiralling in movement, in an ocean of currents. There is no void. Space isn't a void and we're not falling anywhere. The crapola they push off as accepted theories is complete nonsense, and they know it, but still pump this out with the flouride. I am so angry at them for their lies, and keeping humanity in a box of nonsense out of step with time and reality. They should all be in prison for crimes against humanity.