Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 01:40:15 -0700
From: Dan Gray <dgray@justin-siena.napanet.net>
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
Subject: Re: Matter in a vacuum
I have a few problems with the terms "matter" and "vacuum".
They're a little archaic in a way, aren't they?
Matter, I guess, is a generic word for "stuff", used primarily for
"stuff" on a macroscopic scale. Our understanding now is that this
conception of "stuff" is really an illusion produced by our senses and
our inability to discern the very small. We know now that the universe
is composed of particles, some with mass and some without.
I think the idea of a vacuum is only relevant if air and other gases are
thought of as continous "stuff" and that their removal produces a unique
and alien environment, the mysterious and "abhorred by nature" vacuum!
I live in a vacuum that happens to have some particles boucing around in
it. In fact, that's me too, isn't it? Even the "volume" of atoms in a
solid are 99.999....% vacuum, aren't they?
Perhaps we should be thinking about particles in volumes rather than
matter in vacuums...
-Dan
dgray@justin-siena.napanet.net