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edgar23
- 1
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The Universe as big as a basket ball??
I recently came upon this quote while perusing the web: “Atoms are largely empty space, aside from spontaneous virtual particle emissions from the quantum fabric in the Universe. So, if you removed all the empty space between all the particles in the Universe, and pushed everything together as closely as you could without reaching singularity condition, it'd be no larger than a basket ball.” Now, I realize that his first statement is true. The particles that make up the mass of atoms are minuscule in scale compared to the size of the atom as a whole. (Forgive me for making another gross analogy here, but I’ve heard that if the protons and neutrons of an atom were the size of soccer balls, the electrons would be the size of grains of salt and would “orbit” the nucleus about a mile out. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this scale as well, as I seem to be relatively uncertain as to the exact dimensions of all this.) Now, what I have problems with is the gentleman’s second statement, “no larger than a basket ball.” It would seem to me, that although we are dealing with such minute particles, the sheer number of them (if the answer to the question of how many particle are there in the universe is even known) would lead me to believe that an object far greater than the size of a basket ball would be produced if one possessed the ability to remove all the empty space between all the particles in the universe without reaching a singularity condition (effectively, a Big Crunch without the crunch). So, my question is, if you were to throw all the forces out the window and just deal with the absolute material volume of the universe, would you get a basket ball? Would it be orange? Could I dunk with it?
I recently came upon this quote while perusing the web: “Atoms are largely empty space, aside from spontaneous virtual particle emissions from the quantum fabric in the Universe. So, if you removed all the empty space between all the particles in the Universe, and pushed everything together as closely as you could without reaching singularity condition, it'd be no larger than a basket ball.” Now, I realize that his first statement is true. The particles that make up the mass of atoms are minuscule in scale compared to the size of the atom as a whole. (Forgive me for making another gross analogy here, but I’ve heard that if the protons and neutrons of an atom were the size of soccer balls, the electrons would be the size of grains of salt and would “orbit” the nucleus about a mile out. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this scale as well, as I seem to be relatively uncertain as to the exact dimensions of all this.) Now, what I have problems with is the gentleman’s second statement, “no larger than a basket ball.” It would seem to me, that although we are dealing with such minute particles, the sheer number of them (if the answer to the question of how many particle are there in the universe is even known) would lead me to believe that an object far greater than the size of a basket ball would be produced if one possessed the ability to remove all the empty space between all the particles in the universe without reaching a singularity condition (effectively, a Big Crunch without the crunch). So, my question is, if you were to throw all the forces out the window and just deal with the absolute material volume of the universe, would you get a basket ball? Would it be orange? Could I dunk with it?