What is space made of?

[skywalker]

I would like to know what space is made of? Anyone think they know the answere?

I asked my indian cousin and he said " Rice and Chicken". Not sure if any one can confirm it or not?:m:

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

This whole thing is just plain goofy.
1111

 

[Crunchy Cat]

Space is literally nothing. Since the universe began and occupied this "nothing", space inside the universe has gravity, EMR, atomic particles, etc travelling through it. "Curved space" is the effects of gravity travelling through space. You cannot curve "nothing".

Nothing is an absence of anything / everything. That includes length, width, height, time, etc. Clearly space requires these properties for content to exist in it; hence, space is alot of things but it's certainly not "nothing".

This invalidates your statement that space cannot be curved. It certainly can. Also, the universe didn't expand into what we know as "space". It's "volume" is made up of space (the universe has actual boundaries).

 

[John Connellan]

I asked my indian cousin and he said " Rice and Chicken". Not sure if any one can confirm it or not?:m:

Would that be chicken tikka, korma, madras, vindaloo or phal?

Mmmm getting hungry now - love indian

 

[Captain Kremmen]

Nothing is an absence of anything / everything. That includes length, width, height, time, etc. Clearly space requires these properties for content to exist in it; hence, space is alot of things but it's certainly not "nothing".

This invalidates your statement that space cannot be curved. It certainly can. Also, the universe didn't expand into what we know as "space". It's "volume" is made up of space (the universe has actual boundaries).

If we believe the physicists, it is also capable of expanding faster than the speed of light.
How do they know that it is not everything else shrinking?

 

[Crunchy Cat]

If we believe the physicists, it is also capable of expanding faster than the speed of light.

Correct.

How do they know that it is not everything else shrinking?

Light is being stretched into the red spectrum. Shrinking would result in a different color.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I would like to know what space is made of? Anyone think they know the answere?

Sticky gooey stuff!

 

[John Connellan]

Sticky gooey stuff!

Lot's of black sticky gooey stuff with a sprinkling of white salt

 

[Captain Kremmen]

Space is made out of dimensions.

 

[kaneda]

Crunchy Cat. Before the universe began, however, there was literally nothing, which occupied no space. Then we have the equivalent of a slow motion explosion with matter everywhere. It has filled the nothing with lumps of material, EMR, atoms, etc. There was never any "space" included in the origin (as in the crap about folded space in a singularity). On the smallest scale, there is still nothing but a bit further up, it is polluted by photons, atomic particles, etc.

If space can be curved as you dogmatically quote, then it is a material. You need to explain how we can start off with everything in a point source and now we have sufficient space for a universe allegedly 158 billion light years across. Where has all the space come from and where is it coming from as expansion continues? Space stretching is garbage. Nothing can stretch like that. Even minor stretching would change basic laws (speed of light, nuclear forces, etc).

How do we know the universe has actual boundaries? The CMB might be a haze due to distance, since it is the same temperature as space away from stars (2.7K) and not thousands of degrees as "it should be". Billions of trillions of stars giving off EMR and particles for billions of years could do it. They don't just vanish.

Does gravity really exist or is really an effect caused by massive bodies curving space as some dogmatics mindlessly claim?

 

[Crunchy Cat]

Crunchy Cat. Before the universe began, however, there was literally nothing...

Feel free to show evidence or even a scientific theory supporting this.

Then we have the equivalent of a slow motion explosion with matter everywhere. It has filled the nothing with lumps of material, EMR, atoms, etc. There was never any "space" included in the origin (as in the crap about folded space in a singularity). On the smallest scale, there is still nothing but a bit further up, it is polluted by photons, atomic particles, etc.

Uh no. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about but it doesn't correspond to any observation or theory I have heard of.

If space can be curved as you dogmatically quote, then it is a material.

If by material you mean atoms then no. If you mean some kind of physical information then absolutely 100% correct.

You need to explain how we can start off with everything in a point source and now we have sufficient space for a universe allegedly 158 billion light years across.

Assuming it was a point source, it would have had alot of energy... enough for universe to continue expanding as it is today.

Where has all the space come from and where is it coming from as expansion continues?

It's coming from energy that's already part of our universe... unless there is an outside energy source feeding it somehow.

Space stretching is garbage. Nothing can stretch like that. Even minor stretching would change basic laws (speed of light, nuclear forces, etc).

Technically it's expanding. That is more points of space are being added to the whole (presumably converted from existing energy).

How do we know the universe has actual boundaries? The CMB might be a haze due to distance, since it is the same temperature as space away from stars (2.7K) and not thousands of degrees as "it should be". Billions of trillions of stars giving off EMR and particles for billions of years could do it. They don't just vanish.

Because it is expanding. An purely unbounded structure would not expand or contract (but it could have a finite segment within it that could... which would be bounded consequently).

Does gravity really exist or is really an effect caused by massive bodies curving space as some dogmatics mindlessly claim?

That it exists is self evident. What it is remains a mystery.

 

[TruthSeeker]

That it exists is self evident. What it is remains a mystery.

We know what it is. It is some form of energy which increases as mass accumulation increases - that is, the strength of the energy is directly proportional to the density of the objects which contain the energy.

What we don't know is exactly how gravity works, that is, what is the connection between the energy and the action the energy performs.


Btw, who said we don't have gravity? Chances are we do, but it is so small compared to the planet that it becomes imperceptible....

 

[Crunchy Cat]

We know what it is. It is some form of energy which increases as mass accumulation increases - that is, the strength of the energy is directly proportional to the density of the objects which contain the energy.

A definition of "what" it is would include what it is composed of for at least one level of granularity. For example, water is composed of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom.

What we don't know is exactly how gravity works, that is, what is the connection between the energy and the action the energy performs.

There's alot of assumptions in that statement.

Btw, who said we don't have gravity? Chances are we do, but it is so small compared to the planet that it becomes imperceptible....

I don't know... where did you read that?

 

[gluon]

Look spacetime is made of a soup of virtual particles. Its has dimensions 3 and 1 temporal, so these dimensions are considered physical by physicists. That answers the question.

Space is not empty, or just space. It is many things.

 

[kaneda]

Feel free to show evidence or even a scientific theory supporting this.

Feel free to explain what was there before the mythical big bang if not nothing.

Uh no. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about but it doesn't correspond to any observation or theory I have heard of.[/QUOTE}

Naturally since I do not waste my time quoting accepted dogma on a science MB. Rather pointless. I might hope that you would give what I say some thought even though it is not accepted dogma.

If by material you mean atoms then no. If you mean some kind of physical information then absolutely 100% correct.

Then you have to explain how we can have endlessly more of it since it is blatant nonsense to think that space can stretch endlessly.

Assuming it was a point source, it would have had alot of energy... enough for universe to continue expanding as it is today.

Point sources as in singularities do not expand (if they exist which is not likely). They would be ultimately stable, unless someone repeals the laws of gravity.

It's coming from energy that's already part of our universe... unless there is an outside energy source feeding it somehow.

I refer you to your first answer since there is no evidence of this.

Technically it's expanding. That is more points of space are being added to the whole (presumably converted from existing energy).

This would suggest that from the first moment, the universe was running down. Considering how big the universe allegedly is, where is so much energy coming from?

Because it is expanding. An purely unbounded structure would not expand or contract (but it could have a finite segment within it that could... which would be bounded consequently).

The alleged expansion is from one interpretation of redshift. We know that everything in the universe is moving, but have no hard evidence that it is moving away from each other since it takes cosmic time to see such an effect.

That it exists is self evident. What it is remains a mystery.

To listen to people talk of curved space, you would think that a star's mass conducts it's attractive effect via space and that we interpret this as a mythical gravity force.

 

[kaneda]

Look spacetime is made of a soup of virtual particles. Its has dimensions 3 and 1 temporal, so these dimensions are considered physical by physicists. That answers the question.

Space is not empty, or just space. It is many things.

If space is something, then you need to explain how there can be endlessly more of it. If it is full of virtual particles, then to keep these constant, it means space cannot expand since there would be less of them as it expanded. How does space go from a point source to 158,000,000,000 light years across? That's a zillion-fold increase.

 

[Crunchy Cat]

Feel free to explain what was there before the mythical big bang if not nothing.

Turning a question back on me doesn't absolve you from providing evidence for your claim. That onus is still on you; however, I will answer your question regardless. Unification theories describe "outside" the universe as the bulk, calibi yao space, fileds, etc. Simply put, our universe is a blip of change in a never-ending system of change.

Naturally since I do not waste my time quoting accepted dogma on a science MB. Rather pointless. I might hope that you would give what I say some thought even though it is not accepted dogma.

You are going to have to explain yourself better.

Then you have to explain how we can have endlessly more of it since it is blatant nonsense to think that space can stretch endlessly.

It would be energy already built in. Consequently, space isn't stretching... it is expanding. There is a world of difference between the two.

Point sources as in singularities do not expand (if they exist which is not likely). They would be ultimately stable, unless someone repeals the laws of gravity.

We don't know enough to make any such of assertions. All we can do is observe, model, make predictions, test, and revise the models.

I refer you to your first answer since there is no evidence of this.

Are you joking? All particles have virtual counterparts that are teeming all around everywhere. Non-virtual particles even make use of virtual ones for communication (ex. electrons repelling each other with virtual photons).

The fields that particles spring from therefore have IMMENSE amounts of energy.

This would suggest that from the first moment, the universe was running down. Considering how big the universe allegedly is, where is so much energy coming from?

It could suggest that the universe will expand until no more energy is left to fuel the expansion (i.e. our unvierse reaches maximum entropy). It could also mean that there is enough energy to continue accelerating expansion... which could could lead to points of space being added so quick that not even the strong nuclear force could hold atomic nucleii together. Keep in mind the universe's expansion was decelrating towards half the age of the universe and then it just picked up and started accelerating. For all we know expansion could decelerate at some point.

The alleged expansion is from one interpretation of redshift. We know that everything in the universe is moving, but have no hard evidence that it is moving away from each other since it takes cosmic time to see such an effect.

We can detect that galaxies are moving apart faster than their mass could otherwise travel. The only known way for that to happen is for more space to be added.

To listen to people talk of curved space, you would think that a star's mass conducts it's attractive effect via space and that we interpret this as a mythical gravity force.

Where there mass density, there is curved spacetime, and there is gravity. Particle physics predicts that carrier is a graviton. M-theory predicts it being self contained force in looped strings. Nobody knows what it is.

 

[gluon]

If space is something, then you need to explain how there can be endlessly more of it. If it is full of virtual particles, then to keep these constant, it means space cannot expand since there would be less of them as it expanded. How does space go from a point source to 158,000,000,000 light years across? That's a zillion-fold increase.

Most negative resavior (such as the Dirac Sea of virtual particles) - have an infinite amount of particles; take some of the energy away, and the hole is replaced by more energy. And space and time expand, more enrgy is released into the vacuum, and this matter and energy is what keeps space and time together.

This is pure physics i speak here.

 

[John Connellan]

Btw, who said we don't have gravity? Chances are we do, but it is so small compared to the planet that it becomes imperceptible....

I don't think anybody said this. Anyway, there is more than just a chance that we, as matter, have a gravitational field

 

[zagacious]

Space is made out of dimensions.

If you take a volume of Space and empty it of hydrogen and helium nuclei, perhaps a few atoms or even complete molecules of matter and lots of photons - energetic particles fleeting through, when it’s empty, that volume of Space even if it’s shielded to stop even an 'electron' from getting in to pollute this area of purely empty Space it wouldn't be long surely before it contains nuclei appearing from nowhere?