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Posts 1,224 - 1,235 of 2,133
Posts 1,224 - 1,235 of 2,133
How 'bout cookies? Mmmm... But wasn't this the batter for warp speed or hyperspace or something like that? Into which we fold the time or something? My, how off-track we've gone...
Something I've been wondering for a while... Can space exist independently of matter? I mean, we define matter as anything that has mass and takes up space, so space is necessary for matter to exist. But can space exist independently? Even in the so-called vacuum of space, virtual particles and anti-particles constantly form and annihilate. So maybe it's the space-time-matter continuum... Just something I've been pondering. 
if matter takes up space, then a lack of matter would take up no space. It doesnt' necessarily mean there will always be matter.
Ulrike: Your question reminded me of something from way back when. I had a quick look at an old book that I had on the universe (granted it's a pop up book from when I was about ten) but here's a quote from its description of events at the time of the big bang:
'And just as matter undergoing nuclear fusion can create energy, so the intense radiation field began to create matter. To preserve the status quo, it also had to create equal amounts of antimatter, whose particles have properties which are matter's opposites in every way. When matter and anti-matter meet, they mutually annihilate. We have to thank for our existence the fact that our young universe wasn't quite even handed. For some reason it created a slight excess of matter over antimatter: 100,000,000 particles to every 99,999,999 antiparticles. Had those figures been equal, the Universe today would be an ever-expanding emptiness.'
That would tend to suggest that space could exist without matter, at least as I read it, but since my studying of physics terminated after the 11th grade, I can hardly claim expertise. I'm just amazed that I still remember that passage from the book after something like 16 years.
Oh, and on an earlier thread, I agree with you Ulrike: Babylon 5 over Star Trek. I have enjoyed both in their time though.
'And just as matter undergoing nuclear fusion can create energy, so the intense radiation field began to create matter. To preserve the status quo, it also had to create equal amounts of antimatter, whose particles have properties which are matter's opposites in every way. When matter and anti-matter meet, they mutually annihilate. We have to thank for our existence the fact that our young universe wasn't quite even handed. For some reason it created a slight excess of matter over antimatter: 100,000,000 particles to every 99,999,999 antiparticles. Had those figures been equal, the Universe today would be an ever-expanding emptiness.'
That would tend to suggest that space could exist without matter, at least as I read it, but since my studying of physics terminated after the 11th grade, I can hardly claim expertise. I'm just amazed that I still remember that passage from the book after something like 16 years.
Oh, and on an earlier thread, I agree with you Ulrike: Babylon 5 over Star Trek. I have enjoyed both in their time though.
As far as the big-bang goes, it's all theoretical. It's well-supported theory, but no one knows exactly how it happened. But since space is not "nothing," it follows that it had to come into existence somehow, from something. It makes sense to me that it might simply be another aspect of mass-energy. *shrug* No clue how one would go about proving that, unless someone found a way to convert matter into space... And they'd need a way to establish that the matter had NOT become energy.
My main point is that everyone thinks about mass-energy as being *something*, but no one really thinks about what *space* actually is, since it's clearly not nothing. (Confusing enough for ya?)
My main point is that everyone thinks about mass-energy as being *something*, but no one really thinks about what *space* actually is, since it's clearly not nothing. (Confusing enough for ya?
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