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Natural vacuums on Earth?

  1. Jul 7, 2008 #1
    Hi, i was wondering today whether or not natural vacuums existed inside of evey cluster of matters that may or may not have an atmosphere. for example, can we say that the space in between protons, neutron, and the electrons in an atom of iron is so small that almost no matter can "fill" the space produced by the electrical repulsion therefore creating a vacuum in that space? If yes then can i also say that as a pure block of iron is heated, the vacuum inside of the block increases by pulling in the vacuum from its neighboring elememts or compounds which also do the same to their neighbors. This will result in a decrease in the overall vacuum of what we know as "Space". In the end, according to my theory, if objects around the universe, that are usually quite cool, were heated so they can expand quite a bit there would be a diminishing vacuum or space in between these objects?

    Thank you for your time and please send references ( URLs) as well as your response in order to help me answer my question.
  2. jcsd
  3. Jul 7, 2008 #2
    You're venturing into strange territory when you try to deal with things the size of atoms. Defining the "border" of a proton or neutron is tricky due to their representation as wave functions and the indeterminacy of their position.

    Also, virtual particles that mediate the forces are continuously transfered between particles, which would "fill" otherwise "empty" space.


    http://www.theUndergraduateJournal.com/ [Broken]
    Last edited by a moderator: May 3, 2017