Post #2106157
2026-04-15 19:33 UTC
Replies (7)
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@_thegeoff@mastodon.social 2026-04-15 19:38
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io My take from it is in reference to the historical model: atoms were known to be made of electrons and some sort of balancing positive charge. One model at the time was the "plum pudding" with an amorphous positive atom containing negative electron "plums". In this case, matter *would* be pretty much solid, atoms in a solid like oranges in a crate. Rutherford's scattering experiments changed all of that *very* dramatically though. We may have overlooked how shocking it was.
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@deetwenty@todon.nl 2026-04-15 19:46
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io as someone with a physics degree the "matter is mostly empty space" thing is kind of technically true, but also not really that interesting, since it is more of a conclusion drawn from our current understanding of things, than the thing itself
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@MisterMultiverse@mastodon.social 2026-04-15 19:49
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io this is a great take. I agree with you, and I like the bee in a jar analogy. Jars can't necessarily fit in the space of other jars. Bees perhaps could move between some jars. In general, enough bees and jars are gathered that solid is solid. In the more empty space without jars, there may be some loose bees. In my particular view, a jar is as physically as significant as 'no jar'. It is in one way or another, the same kind of thing. Different kinds of jars.
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@coffee@cafecreature.club 2026-04-15 19:51
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io The phrase is an invitation to consider what we think we know about the world, and how we look at it. Yeah, it doesn't change anything about your day-to-day life, but it brings about the understanding that the senses we are given do not accurately represent the reality, and cannot be relied on entirely for understanding of the nature of the world around us. It both grounds you and invites you to try and find out more. Besides, nobody's ever been hurt by a little perspective.
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@howking@mastodonczech.cz 2026-04-15 19:54
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io It’s simply a description of reality. If something can be compressed, it means there was a lot of empty space inside it. Like foam rubber, for example. And matter can be compressed to an extreme degree. A star collapses into a neutron star by reducing its volume by 100,000,000,000,000,000 times. That’s only because the rest of its volume was empty. A rock can be compressed 100,000,000,000,000 times to have the density of a neutron star. So even rocks were largely empty.
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@emc2@indieweb.social 2026-04-15 20:07
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io It suggests the person saying it doesn't understand the quantum mechanical view of things, and is trying to apply a classical "billiard ball" model where it doesn't apply. Matter at that scale is probability densities; "empty space" isn't really even a thing.
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@bluestarultor@tech.lgbt 2026-04-16 03:54
@Adorable_Sergal@hachyderm.io I think it's kind of beautiful, actually. A demonstration of scale. And you rarely deal with only one atom. The electron cloud is really a set of probabilities for where an electron might be and a molecule is held together by that. We experience the universe at a scale where we're blind to it all being held together by countless instances of opposing forces and shared possibilities. Electrons move down the outside of a wire at the speed of honey. Our own bodies are unstable Carbon-14 constantly emitting radiation and somehow women emit more than men. When we die, that very moment is preserved in half-lives that could allow others countless generations in the future to know when. Half-lives of our atoms spitting out bits of themselves beyond the forces that bind. The fact that it's mostly empty space is just the doorstep to understanding what a miracle it feels like that any of this works at all.