What is space?

[EvanEjk]

So I was thinking, in outer space in some parts there is nothing, just space. But then for a chunk of space being in existence there has to be something there or there wouldn't be that chunk there. So then I was thinking about it more and was wondering would this prove there is dimensions beyond what we live in? Is this piece of space here because it had to be for the fourth dimension because something will be there in the future? (With in the fourth dimension it wouldn't be looked as in the future but some object has been assigned to that space.)

idk maybe i'm missing something obvious

[austintorn@aol.com]

There is no space without anything there, so 'empty space' would not be anything at all. Space does not sit around waiting to get filled by stuff; it is the stuff.

How's that sound?

(Farsight can fill us in more)

[Graybeard]

So I was thinking, in outer space in some parts there is nothing, just space. But then for a chunk of space being in existence there has to be something there or there wouldn't be that chunk there. So then I was thinking about it more and was wondering would this prove there is dimensions beyond what we live in? Is this piece of space here because it had to be for the fourth dimension because something will be there in the future? (With in the fourth dimension it wouldn't be looked as in the future but some object has been assigned to that space.)

idk maybe i'm missing something obvious

Hi Evan .... It depends what model you adopt. The standard model is the most widely used. It says that space is a quantised field. If you consider it as you would an ocean where its average level is where all things cancel out. Then 'matter' as opposed to 'space' is just the tidal values. Those areas of the ocean that are above or below sea level, the mean value, those parts that haven't canceled out, those parts you perceive.. But all of the ocean is filled so the value of the 'mean average' is never zero, its called a non-zero value. As Austin says, there is no such thing as 'empty space'.

(my opinion only)

cool bananas ... greg

[Max™]

Space is all that exists, it is unfolded matter, or distance, you could say.

Funnily, Farsight and I hit upon the same basic idea from different approaches.

The fabric of the universe IS space, matter is ripples and knots within it, and time is an identifying coordinate useful for specifying that otherwise identical events weren't identical exactly, because they happened at different times, though the points in space and processes may have been identical otherwise.

[AntonioLao]

maybe i'm missing something

What's missing is the EM (electromagnetic) field since it's always invisible until it interacts with matter or changes into radiant energy.