The Quiz of Nothing

Answer: Place-value system

With the introduction of a place-value system, in which the locations of the number symbols determine their values, zero suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. It's a case of addition by subtraction, as a zero symbol is added, the overall number of other symbols is decreased because the same symbols can mean different things in different positions.

It also meant that large numbers could be written in a shorter and easier fashion (compare our notation to Roman numerals). Now, zero becomes important because it is needed for whatever base the number system will use (e.g. base-ten for metric).

The Babylonians developed the first positional system around 2000 BC (although they used a base-60 system) and had a zero as well. Their zero, however, was not quite complete.

It merely meant an empty space and was used more as a separation marker than as a quantity in and of itself. That development would come from India.

Answer: All of these

To the Greeks, whose philosophical systems were entirely based on logic, it was difficult for them to treat Nothing as Something. The idea that a void or vacuum could actually exist was completely anathema to them. In order to accommodate it, their entire system of thought would have to be rearranged (and that was something they had neither the time nor the inclination to do.) The Hebrews faced similar problems. Nothing was what God created the universe from, if areas of Nothing (voids and vacuums) still existed then it could be construed that God had botched the job so to speak. And lastly, the idea of the void conjured up images of evil or hell or the absence of vital things such as food or possessions or God's favor.

It was plainly frightening and thus people ignored it.

Answer: Sriyantra

The Sriyantra was a geometrical construction of nested triangles and polygons radiating outward from a single point (the Bindu). The meditational exercise was to focus first on the bindu, a point, which represented the uncreated Universe and slowly follow the polygonal shapes outward to encompass everything.

The bindu was, literally, the point from which everything sprung. The Sriyantra exercise could also be done in reverse, starting with the whole picture and then collapsing down to the central point. Antariksha is one of the many Indian words for atmosphere (the Indians used a plethora of words to describe different facets of Nothing).

Another one of these words is sunya which is the word for zero, signifying void.

Answer: Atom

The introduction of atomic theory was a major step forward in the march towards the void. The idea of indivisible particles that are the basis for all matter was first postulated by Leucippus of Miletus in the 5th century BCE (the better known Democritus was his student). Leucippus introduced the concept that these atoms require empty space to move in. Without this space, no movement or change could happen.

The void was being used as a separation marker (notice how this parallels the initial use of zero as only a symbol for separation) to define the difference between matter (what is) and Nothing (what is not). For the first time, Nothing was being seriously considered to have a place in the physical world.

Answer: Tycho Brahe

Although Tycho Brahe was a great scientist, his realm was astronomical observation and catalogue not studies about Nothing. Galileo's interest in the void led him to conduct the now-famous (but most likely untrue) experiment wherein he dropped objects of differing masses off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to demonstrate their constant rate of acceleration. According to his laws of motion, all objects regardless of mass should hit the ground simultaneously.

He realized that air resistance fouls this process.

His idealized laws only held true in a vacuum where there is no resistance from air or anything else. Torricelli, one of Galileo's students, expounded further on the vacuum concept. He concluded that the weight of the air (atmospheric pressure) pressing down on the earth was the reason why air filled any potential vacuums.

He finally laid to rest Aristotle's "nature abhors a vacuum" by actually creating a vacuum through the invention of the first barometer. Lastly, Pascal discovered that air pressure decreases as elevation increases.

This led him to believe that there was possibly a point where the atmosphere surrounding Earth simply attenuated away to nothing, leaving a vacuum behind.

Answer: Ether

The ether was supposed to be a pervasive "fluid" that filled space and therefore precluded the existence of and need for a vacuum. The belief in the ether diverted the course of the study of Nothing because it appeared to solve all of the problems and fit the observations.

The debates over the nature and properties of the ether caused a major decline in the addition of knowledge about the vacuum. It wasn't until a series of definitive experiments by Albert Michelson and the genius of Albert Einstein that the ether finally disappeared for good.

Answer: All of these

When quantum physics made its appearance, the vacuum needed to be changed to accommodate new insights. Using both Planck's studies of black-body radiation and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the classical definition of the vacuum was changed from a completely empty state to one that is in the lowest possible energy state (but not Nothing). Viewing the Universe as a giant container with radiation within it, Planck predicted that particles and energy would flow in such a way as to equalize the temperature throughout all parts of the container. Thus, there would never truly be a vacuum due to this equalizing action (the density might be incredibly low but not zero). Also, one could not definitively state that such a container contained no particles or mass or energy at all because it would require perfect knowledge of the position and motion of all parts of the system simultaneously (which would violate the Uncertainty Principle). Lastly, Einstein's equations denote several possible Universes depending on the distribution of matter and energy throughout them. True empty vacuums would result in solutions to Einstein's general relativity equations describing Universes that don't match ours.

Answer: Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything is the theory that would describe all four of the fundamental forces and their effects and interactions as one unified 'superforce' and not four different forces. Physicists believe that the forces all derive from one force and describing this force will greatly simplify particle and quantum studies.

The main problem is that the forces are all very different from one another. They act on different particles, with different ranges and strengths. The interesting nature of the quantum vacuum may be the key to resolving the four forces under one banner.

The interactions between various elementary particles are greatly altered when operating in the vacuum and physicists hope to study these interactions to understand how the forces react to each other at different environmental conditions (temperature, energy, etc...).

At the beginning of the Universe, when energy and temperature were much higher than today, physicists believe that the four forces may have been equal in strength and unified before separating as the Universe cooled and descended into a lower energy state. Only with a greater knowledge of the particles and energies that comprise the forces can the Theory of Everything come one step closer to reality.

Answer: Rate of inflation

Fluctuations in the vacuum created different energy states, which interacted with the temperature and size of the early Universe to drive a sudden expansion of space itself (inflation). The rate of this expansion was determined by the properties of the quantum vacuum. Should the expansion have occurred too slowly (at low-energy), the Universe would have backslid into a Big Crunch after only a short time. Had it occurred too quickly (at high-energy), the Universe would have become a great yawning void.

In both cases, there would not have been the opportunity for matter to coalesce into stars or other structures and therefore no biological molecules. The irregularities created by these different energy states also produced small changes in density that would eventually form aggregates of matter (stars, galaxies, molecules, living matter). Due to the underlying qualities of the vacuum, our Universe expanded at just the right rate with just enough density irregularities to ensure that the stuff of life could form and evolve.

Answer: Inflationary no-hair theory

This rather interesting name comes from the fact that the Universe that would result from this theory would have no distinguishing characteristics or features (no different hairstyles, metaphorically speaking). All irregularities would be smoothed out.

This Universe would be populated only by the remaining husks and relics of stars and galaxies that have slowly dissipated all of their energy and radiation away. The repulsive force of vacuum energy stays constant, unlike all other forms of energy, and so will eventually overcome everything and drive the Universe's expansion forever.

In this manner, everything will return to Nothing, that concept that has so terrified the human race may well be our ultimate end.