Difficulty with the notion that we are mostly empty space.

We're empty space.... BAAAAAAANT wrong answer.

What should be said is, we think we're mostly empty space

Or, we can only understand 4% of space

Or, were composed mostly of # we don't understand

And I'll go with the last one, humans don't know a damn thing

a reply to: Sinter Klaas

i like this one better

skip to 2:10 or so for the impact

you can see the painted stripes of the car suspended in the air at impact

a reply to: Another_Nut

Awesome !

Indeed... a lot better.

a reply to: Words

I've heard the strange notion "atoms are mostly empty space therefor we are mostly empty space" from numerous physicists and mathematicians. Despite this knowledge, I am unable to walk through walls, which I am told are also mostly empty space.

The short answer is it's a matter of scale and speed.

The longer answer has been provided pretty well by the other replies in this thread for the purposes of this discussion (i.e. - let's leave QM out of it for now).

But if you think it's hard to get your head around this one, wait until we enter the wonderful world of quantum physics. Now *that's* when the party really gets started...

originally posted by: onequestion
We're empty space.... BAAAAAAANT wrong answer.

What should be said is, we think we're mostly empty space

Or, we can only understand 4% of space

Or, were composed mostly of # we don't understand

And I'll go with the last one, humans don't know a damn thing

So *magic* it is then?

Thats obviously not what you are saying, but what exactly ARE you saying? Give up till the answer comes falling from the sky? There's estimates, theories and ideas, at least we can go from there.

a reply to: NoNameNeeded

Its a bloody good job there is so much empty space involved when talking about your atoms. If there were much much less empty space then your density could well reach the Schwarzchild radius and you would form a black hole.

Though I don't think you would have much to worry about, the Schwarzchild radius of the average human is a radius smaller than the electron orbit of a single hydrogen atom.

Korg.

a reply to: Korg Trinity

Hilarious.

originally posted by: NoNameNeeded
a reply to: Korg Trinity

Hilarious.

I'm glad you can appreciate the humor.... It also happens to be true

Korg.

originally posted by: Words
a reply to: Astyanax

is the empty space between the particles an actual property of the atom? If so, what force contains the empty space? Within what boundary is it contained. Or is the empty space merely the conceptual distance (radii) between these physical entities?

I understand the folly of using macroscopic analogies, but is the empty space between the planets a concrete or abstract property of the solar system? Is the solar system made of empty space? or is the solar system made of planets orbiting the sun?

Obviously I'm having difficulties with this idea.

You know, I see this a lot on ATS but I have a hard time grasping why it's disturbing to people.

Why does something have to "contain" its constituent parts?

A thing can simply BE, without having to worry about a boundary. Let's take, for example, a chess set. Got one on the table here. What constitutes that? So many pieces, and a board. But what "contains" it? Nothing. I can step out on the balcony and chunk a bishop into the street if I put some arm on it. Now it's spread out more. But the set still consists of those parts and that board, even if they're not all together. I can buy another bishop that looks like the one that just got run over by a truck. It's still that chess set, though, even if one of the parts is different.

There's no need to "contain" it, it doesn't cease to exist if separated, and it has no fixed boundary.

An atom consists of a bunch of particles, depending on what level you want to look at it, you'd generally see electron(s), proton(s) and likely a neutron or two. It's arranged in a set, and that set is called a particular instantiation of an atom of some type. As long as it's together, that's that particular atom. If I strip an electron off of it with some incoming EM, now I've got an ionized atom, but it's still an atom. Like the bishop I tossed, the electron will be replaced eventually by another one just like it.

The void between the bits of the atom is just there. It doesn't need to be boxed up or inside a container. It's not like it will leak out. The boundary of an atom (or anything else at that scale) is fuzzy, anyway.

a reply to: Another_Nut

I am currently stuck in bureaucracy, so my mood flips from super sensitive to pissed. Should go back but... Winter is coming, so good luck man, if you need something pm me.
@words and everybody else, I joke till I choke, no hard feelings, ever.

it's all about perspective and proportion: our bodies contain a mass of atoms clumped. because that mass makes our body bigger than an individual atom, we perceive 'matter'. if we were galactic size then we could not walk through a galaxy or solar system.

originally posted by: Words
a reply to: lordcomac

Being mostly empty space, we cannot pass through walls unimpeded any more than a magnet can pass through another magnets field unimpeded- and largely for the same reasons.

So is empty space in an atom contained within an atom by a magnetic field?

The space is not contained, its is untouchable and free.

It is mostly outside the atom but as the atom has no boundary it goes right through it and permeates everything.

Either our senses are playing tricks on us or science is. Lol

a reply to: Words

Relax man. Its not that bad. Walking through walls is a myth and no one has been able to walk through a solid wall yet.
As for being full of empty space, don't even sweat about it. Do you care that every time you eat a sandwich you devour billions of billions of single cell organisms? No, you do not care, as the Whale does not care for every plankton it eats.

So what if people say there is lots of empty space inside me, if you zoom in to my back it will look like i got an enormous desert on my back. Don't worry about these things.

Does Plasma Science not provide a legitimate answer?