Quote:
Originally Posted by who
Ok, I asked how is it possible to measure nothing.
And still, how is it possible? You're not measuring something, you're measuring lack of something, which makes no sense at all.
So, to say that there's six billion trillion brazillian miles of nothing is nonsensical. What they ought to say is that there's stuff, then a gap of six trillion zillion miles, then more stuff.
But even that is nonsense. The stuff that isn't there isn't measurable because it doesn't exist!
So, stating that there is six billion trillion miles of nothing is nonsense. It's not true.
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Think of matter expressed as a gas station.
You come up to a gas station on the side of the road, and there's a sign beside a gas station on some near-deserted road that says "6 sextillion miles until the next gas station"
That's what we're talking about here.
Sure, there's stuff, tumbleweeds, grass... maybe some stuff that's beyond our perception - that we can't see (oxygen, other gases, etc) - but no gas stations.... or, relating back to what's actually going on... no matter. Just empty space*.
* for the most part. As the article says, there may be bit and pieces here and there, just nothing cohesive in the standard sense of nebulae, star systems, etc.