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Asked by ledw to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 18 Jun 2013.
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Steven Gardner answered on 18 Jun 2013:
A vacuum is defined in the dictionary as an area that is empty of matter.
Thing is though, that’s not actually true, particles jump in and out of existance all the time because energy exists within the vacuum, and since energy can be changed into mass (by E=mc^2) particles can be made out of pure energy. So no vacuum is ever totally empty.
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Christina Pagel answered on 18 Jun 2013:
what Steve said is right! even in a vacuum you have virtual particles popping in and out of existence all the time…
BUT also there’s a perfect vacuum and then actual vacuums that we see – so for all practical purposes the space between the planets in our solar system is a vacuum, but it’s not completely empty of particles – there are about ten electrons in every cubic cm of space… and the types of vacuum we can make in the lab on Earth can’t get close to that empty!
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