The most disturbing question in physics

[zbigniew.modrzejewski]

Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology :

" Richard Feynman looked tired when he wandered into my office. It was the end of a long, exhausting day in Santa Barbara, sometime around 1982. I described to Feynman what I thought were exciting if speculative new ideas such as fractional spin and anyons. Feynman was unimpressed, saying: “Wilczek, you should work on something real.” Looking to break the awkward silence that followed, I asked Feynman the most disturbing question in physics, then as now: “Why doesn’t empty space weigh anything?” "

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160705-feynman-diagrams-nature-of-empty-space/

Edited November 12, 2016 by zbigniew.modrzejewski

[studiot]

You posted a link to and quoted from a lot of material.

 

Your point or question is specifically what exactly?

[zbigniew.modrzejewski]

You posted a link to and quoted from a lot of material.

 

Your point or question is specifically what exactly?

 

 

" Why doesn’t empty space weigh anything? " — Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[studiot]

 

 

" Why doesn’t empty space weigh anything? " — Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Why should it?

 

One answer was already provided in your link.

 

My answer would be you can't make the physical connection to empty space, necessary for weighing anything.

 

Your link also contains a fallacious statement in the section about the difference between a vacuum and a void.

 

It claims that a void has no properties at all.

 

This is untrue.

[DrP]

F = mg. What is the mass of empty space? I suspect that there might be more to it than this?

[studiot]

F = mg. What is the mass of empty space? I suspect that there might be more to it than this?

 

I presume you are referring to a definition of weight, W as W = mg.

 

The problem is that g is zero in an isolated completely empty space.

Edited November 12, 2016 by studiot

[zbigniew.modrzejewski]

 

Your link also contains a fallacious statement in the section about the difference between a vacuum and a void.

 

It claims that a void has no properties at all. This is untrue.

 

According to whom ? Why ?

Can you prove it ?!

 

" Why doesn’t empty space weigh anything? " — Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at MIT

 

Why should it?

 

 

According to Prof. Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at MIT,

it is THE most disturbing question in physics!

Edited November 12, 2016 by zbigniew.modrzejewski

[DrP]

 

I presume you are referring to a definition of weight, W as W = mg.

 

The problem is that g is zero in an isolated completely empty space.

 

I did suppose it was more complicated than I was seeing it to be, or that I probably didn't understand the question fully.. The force between any 2 objects is kind of a weight - it is a force that acts on a mass when another mass is near - most usually thought of as a planet. With empty space, what is the force of weight supposed to act on? What force acts upon empty space from the gravity of a nearby planet? ( Maybe I should read the article fully instead of skimming it - sorry.)

Edited November 12, 2016 by DrP

[studiot]

 

I did suppose it was more complicated than I was seeing it to be, or that I probably didn't understand the question fully.. The force between any 2 objects is kind of a weight - it is a force that acts on a mass when another mass is near - most usually thought of as a planet. With empty space, what is the force of weight supposed to act on? What force acts upon empty space from the gravity of a nearby planet? ( Maybe I should read the article fully instead of skimming it - sorry.)

 

You are nearly there.

 

 

Note I said completely isolated empty space.

 

In a 'chunk' of empty space near a massive ( = body with mass, not necessarily a large mass) body g will not be zero.

 

So I guess the question Frank Wilczek posed refers to this case where the empty space is not isolated.

 

What he is saying concerns the influence of the container/boundary of the empty space, along with whatever lies beyond it.

 

 

zbi

 

I have answered your question precisely.

 

You have not acknowledged the answer.

 

So how can I proceed to explain an additional gratis remark I made for your benefit?

 

But yes I can not only explain at least one property of empty space I can confirm my prediction by direct measurement.

Edited November 12, 2016 by studiot

[Strange]

 

...

 

 

Pointless quotes in ludicrous fonts and no explanation deleted.

 

Why do you find this question disturbing?

[Daecon]

What is meant by "empty" in the context of the original question in the opening post?

[Strange]

What is meant by "empty" in the context of the original question in the opening post?

 

 

It means the vacuum which contains various fields, zero-point energy / quantum fluctuations, dark energy, etc.

 

The relationship between the vacuum energy and the cosmological constant (dark energy) is one of the big unanswered questions. (Which I suppose is what is meant by "disturbing".)

[AshBox]

In my opinion, we know that empty space is full of particles and their antiParticles popping in and out of existence but that mean that empty space is not nothing !!! in fact its something with its own characteristics !!

[swansont]

 

I presume you are referring to a definition of weight, W as W = mg.

 

The problem is that g is zero in an isolated completely empty space.

 

 

It disappears in a homogeneous medium as well (which is spherically symmetric or of infinite extent).