1 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:08,240 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. It's Robert 2 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: Lamb again and we have another Vault episode for you. 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,239 Speaker 1: This is part three of our series from last year 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: on Horror vacuu I I hope you enjoy. 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:23,080 Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 6 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 7 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb. 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part three 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 3: of our series on Horror Vacui or Fear of the Void, 10 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 3: which we have. We've been mainly focusing I think on 11 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 3: art and design in the past couple of episodes, but 12 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 3: today I wanted to take a look at the history 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,600 Speaker 3: of the vacuum, and specifically resistance to the idea of 14 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 3: the vacuum in philosophy and physics. And to begin, I 15 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 3: was reading at the scientific history of vacuum physics in 16 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 3: a book called The Void by Frank Close from Oxford 17 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 3: University Press in two thousand and seven. Frank Close is 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 3: a professor of physics at Oxford. I think emeritis now, 19 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 3: but anyway, I was reading about this and he included 20 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,320 Speaker 3: a quote from the rig Veda that I thought was 21 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 3: very interesting. This is from the creation Hymn of the 22 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 3: rig Veda, which says, in translation, there was neither non 23 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 3: existence nor existence. Then there was neither the realm of 24 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,800 Speaker 3: space nor the sky, which is beyond what stirred where? 25 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 3: And I really like this because it I think it 26 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 3: encapsulates a kind of a fascinated but challenging history of 27 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 3: attempts to conceptualize empty space, to even imagine what empty 28 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 3: space would mean if it were to exist, Because I 29 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 3: noticed kind of a gap here. As far as I 30 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 3: can tell, most people all around the world today, even 31 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 3: in various different cultures whatever, really, as far as I 32 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 3: can tell, don't seem to express any major problems making 33 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,679 Speaker 3: sense of the idea of empty space. Obviously, there is 34 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 3: a lot we don't know about the nature of space. 35 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:21,919 Speaker 3: What is space, where does it come from? What different 36 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 3: kinds of space could there be, and so forth. So 37 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 3: space is still a vessel of many mysteries. It's not 38 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:29,920 Speaker 3: like we've got it all solved. But if you just 39 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 3: simplify the idea to the basics, I and I think 40 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 3: most people don't have any problem imagining the concept of 41 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 3: an area of three dimensional space with no particles in it. 42 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 3: That just yeah, Okay, that makes sense as an idea 43 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,799 Speaker 3: to me. But if you read about how ancient Greek 44 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,960 Speaker 3: philosophers wrote about this question, I do not get the 45 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 3: impression that the same was generally true for them. Not 46 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 3: only did many of them deny the possibility of empty 47 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 3: space existing, sometimes I get the feeling that they are 48 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 3: struggling to even imagine what the concept would mean. Do 49 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 3: you know what I'm getting at here, Rob. 50 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, this is something we talked a little bit 51 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: about off Mike before the episode here. Yeah, it's it's 52 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,080 Speaker 1: kind of complicated. I mean, one level, they're always going 53 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: to be linguistic possibilities in play. For example, I was 54 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: looking into some sources on the void in Chinese philosophy, 55 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: and you run into, for example, that they are separate 56 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: terms for such concepts as emptiness, nothingness, and the infinite 57 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: or the absolute and one source here, I was looking 58 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: at Fan Magois in Frontiers of Philosophy in China from 59 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: twenty ten, contents that their subtleties involved that quote English 60 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: language is unable to capture. So yeah, we have to 61 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 1: acknowledge linguistic possibilities. But on the other hand, like thinking 62 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: about like what is it as a modern human, Like, 63 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: why do I, like, you have no problem imagining a 64 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: vacuum or or even a void. And I think part 65 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 1: of it may be like just the mechanical possibilities that 66 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: we have now and the media evidence thereof. So for instance, 67 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:14,960 Speaker 1: when I think about a perfect vacuum, I can imagine 68 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: a device that mechanically makes it so within say a 69 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: closed space, I can think back to footage of someone 70 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: in a It's not a perfect vacuum, but a place 71 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:25,840 Speaker 1: that has no air, that's sort of vacuum. Because I 72 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:27,839 Speaker 1: guess we get into differences too. Are we talking about 73 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: a space without air in which say a scientist in 74 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: a suit may drop a feather and a bowling ball 75 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: and do that whole experiment, or are we talking about 76 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: something that is a true vacuum with nothing in it 77 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:47,039 Speaker 1: at all, like like an absolute void. And there are 78 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,119 Speaker 1: differences there, but yeah, as far as just like maybe 79 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: it gets into the idea of imagining a space with 80 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: air in it, Like we have this clear idea of 81 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: what atmosphere is and what air is, and we can 82 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:04,359 Speaker 1: also see and behold and sort of to some degree 83 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: understand the mechanics by which that air may be removed 84 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:09,719 Speaker 1: from a space, and therefore you could have a space 85 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: where the visible is not present and the invisible has 86 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:13,360 Speaker 1: been removed as well. 87 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a very good point. And I think, for like, 88 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 3: one major difference may be the unsettled question of like 89 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 3: whether the air itself has weight for much of human history. Like, 90 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:28,719 Speaker 3: if you don't have that worked out, it may just 91 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 3: be harder to imagine what space devoid of even gas 92 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,240 Speaker 3: particles would be. Yeah, but I want to turn to 93 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 3: some examples that Frank Close looks at in this book, 94 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 3: especially his first chapter on sort of the ancient history 95 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 3: of the void in physics, to look at how this 96 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,839 Speaker 3: idea was thought of before the modern era. So the 97 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 3: pre Socratic Greek philosopher Thales of Militias, who lived from 98 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 3: the seventh to the sixth century BCE, writing about the 99 00:05:56,600 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 3: idea of emptiness or void without substance, is actually kind 100 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 3: of tempted to ask can there be such a thing 101 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 3: as nothing? If someone is able to think about it, 102 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:11,039 Speaker 3: wouldn't thinking about it mean it was something? And again 103 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,279 Speaker 3: this raises an interesting question for me. I mean, my 104 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 3: initial reaction is just like, well, no, you know, so 105 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 3: imagine a container with empty space in it. I don't 106 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 3: think by thinking about that we change the nature of 107 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 3: what's in the container. But this does kind of raise 108 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 3: the specter of like if there could be a vacuum 109 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 3: for people like Thelees. Maybe this has almost more sort 110 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 3: of totalizing cosmic implications, that the ability of a vacuum 111 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,280 Speaker 3: to exist says something about the universe as a whole, 112 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 3: not just one region of the universe, say inside of 113 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 3: a glass bottle or something. So that's one level in 114 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 3: which I respond. But then on the other hand, I 115 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,920 Speaker 3: can sympathize with thoughts like this knowing some things about 116 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 3: modern physics, because in a very real sense, empty space 117 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,039 Speaker 3: is I think I can make the argument that it 118 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,839 Speaker 3: is not nothing. Empty space is something even though it 119 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,040 Speaker 3: is not matter. So this may come from a failure 120 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 3: to distinguish between space and a concept like nothingness, in 121 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 3: which case, like if you're imagining space is something like 122 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 3: space has properties, then in fact it couldn't be nothing, 123 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:24,280 Speaker 3: which is what Theyley's was thinking about. 124 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:29,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, this perhaps distinction between nothingness and emptiness, this whole 125 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: thing about thinking about it making it maybe less nothing. 126 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: This reminds me of another paper I was looking at 127 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: being in nothingness in Greek and ancient Chinese philosophy by 128 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: Giming shein Philosophy East and West, nineteen fifty one. This 129 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: author points out that in both Chinese Taoism and Greek philosophy, 130 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: you see this culmination of things in nothingness. Quote, nothingness 131 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: is the nature of being in itself, which is absolutely 132 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: transcendent and nameless. So if I'm interpreting this correctly, the 133 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: sort of dual identity of nothingness in these two different 134 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: thought systems, nothingness is ultimately that which comes before substance, 135 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: but also comes before human attributed meaning. So yeah, like 136 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:14,680 Speaker 1: even thinking about even giving it a name changes the 137 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: nothingness of it, at least from these perspectives. 138 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,440 Speaker 3: Yes, though with Greek philosophy, I know it very much 139 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 3: depends on which philosopher you're talking about, because a lot 140 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,760 Speaker 3: of these big Greek philosophers, they were emphatic in specifically 141 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,319 Speaker 3: rejecting the idea that the universe could have come from nothingness, 142 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 3: that there could ever have been nothingness, or that the 143 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,479 Speaker 3: universe would ever disappear into nothingness like that was specifically 144 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 3: part of what the cosmological history that Theales was arguing for. 145 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 3: According to Thales, it would be impossible for the universe 146 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:50,120 Speaker 3: to have come from nothingness, and it would be impossible 147 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:52,960 Speaker 3: for it to ever become nothing. There's just sort of 148 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 3: like infinitely the same. 149 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 1: Stuff without giving into the exacts of it all though, 150 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,320 Speaker 1: when you hear some of these sweeping x nations of what, say, 151 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 1: the universe would be if it were reduced to a singularity, 152 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,079 Speaker 1: you know that sort of thing like, that's not nothing, 153 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: it's something, but it's such a strange and alien concept, 154 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:16,719 Speaker 1: so different from certainly our perceivable reality, that it might 155 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:18,080 Speaker 1: as well be nothing, you know. 156 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:20,480 Speaker 3: Yes, that's a good point. And of course, again to 157 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:24,679 Speaker 3: highlight the difference between nothingness and empty space. Nothingness, I 158 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 3: think is much harder to define. I don't know exactly 159 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 3: what we mean when we talk about nothingness. It's sort 160 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 3: of a more slippery, mysterious concept. Whereas empty space. Again, 161 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 3: it's not that we understand everything about it, but it 162 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 3: is something that has physical properties and can be manipulated. 163 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 3: We know some things about. 164 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: It, yeah, like even linguistically. When we talk about vacuum, 165 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: so we've formed an artificial vacuum inside of a reinforced 166 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:53,679 Speaker 1: steel chamber. Does that steel chamber contain a vacuum, and 167 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:56,280 Speaker 1: therefore the vacuum is not nothing because it is a 168 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: thing by virtue of being different from everything surrounding it 169 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: because it is contained. 170 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:04,840 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, well that raises another question of when you 171 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 3: ask whether a vacuum exists in nature, I mean in reality, 172 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 3: Whenever we're talking about a vacuum, we're talking about essentially 173 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 3: low density gas. So and the question is how low 174 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 3: density does the gas have to get before you are 175 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 3: comfortable talking about a region of it as a vacuum. 176 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 3: So like and say the and we can come back 177 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 3: to this maybe in the next part of the series 178 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,440 Speaker 3: or something. But like in interstellar voids, there are still 179 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 3: particles floating around out there. They're just very far apart 180 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:36,679 Speaker 3: compared to much closer to stars or in the atmosphere 181 00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 3: of a planet. But I guess the question would be 182 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:43,600 Speaker 3: how far apart does every individual particle of matter have 183 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 3: to get before you say, okay, this is really a 184 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:50,840 Speaker 3: total vacuum. But to come back to Theales for a second, 185 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:56,400 Speaker 3: close makes an interesting argument about Thales sort of having 186 00:10:56,440 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 3: something in his cosmology similar to to a kind of 187 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 3: empty space, basically a primeval material or a sort of 188 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:08,720 Speaker 3: ground state for the universe, and Close argues that for Theyales, 189 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 3: this ground state of existence was water. This belief is 190 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:16,680 Speaker 3: related to the fact that we can observe water going 191 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:19,680 Speaker 3: through phase changes, so we can see water as solid ice, 192 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 3: as liquid, as water vapor. And Close says that Theales 193 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 3: assumed that the diversity of forms went on from there, 194 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 3: and in fact water was the basis of every material 195 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 3: on Earth. Rocks, plants, air, et cetera. Are all somehow 196 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 3: water in some extrapolated form, and so he writes, quote, 197 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 3: space for Theales is as empty as it can be 198 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 3: when all matter in it has been turned into its 199 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:52,440 Speaker 3: primeval form, liquid water, like the ocean. Water thus contains 200 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 3: every possible form of matter. 201 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:58,000 Speaker 1: I think we've actually discussed this before. Yeah, in connection 202 00:11:58,080 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 1: to his work, like you get down to the idea 203 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:04,319 Speaker 1: of cosmic ocean, of a primordial ocean on which there 204 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:05,560 Speaker 1: is no land and no being. 205 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 3: So there are definitely similarities between imagining, say, you know, 206 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,120 Speaker 3: the gods or the Creator or whatever hovering over a 207 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:17,439 Speaker 3: great void and hovering over a great ocean. That those 208 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 3: are like similar ideas in some of these ancient cosmologies 209 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,680 Speaker 3: at least, But anyway, going on from there in the 210 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 3: fifth century BCE. There's another pre Socratic Greek philosopher, Impedicles, 211 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:33,079 Speaker 3: who argued that there were actually four fundamental forms of matter. 212 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,720 Speaker 3: It wasn't that everything came from water like they least 213 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 3: thought that there was in fact earth, air, fire, and water. 214 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 3: And Empedocles notably realized that air was itself a substance 215 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 3: and not merely empty space. He also believed there was 216 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 3: no such thing as empty space. But of course the 217 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 3: discovery that air is not empty space does not mean 218 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 3: that empty space cannot exist. But then we come to 219 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,199 Speaker 3: the atomists, who are very interesting in their departure from 220 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 3: these other ways of thinking. So the atomists included a 221 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 3: number of ancient philosophers like Lucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, who believed, 222 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 3: quite remarkably ahead of their time, that all matter is 223 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 3: actually made up of imperceptibly tiny particles, which they called atoms, 224 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 3: from the Greek word atomos, which is derived from something 225 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 3: that means like cannot be cut or basically indivisible. Now, 226 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,640 Speaker 3: of course, today we know that atoms are not actually indivisible. 227 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:35,439 Speaker 3: They are made up of subatomic particles like protons, neutrons, electrons, 228 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 3: and even protons and neutrons can be further subdivided, but 229 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 3: ancient atomists did not have the experimental apparatus needed to 230 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 3: discover this. Instead, they arrived at the atomic view of 231 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 3: physics primarily by way of thought, experiments, and everyday empirical observations, 232 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 3: such as the observation of things like the erosion of 233 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 3: solid matter in nature. So if you have a great, 234 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,600 Speaker 3: a grand marble staircase, and you notice that over the years, 235 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,400 Speaker 3: the steps on the staircase are eroding. They're sort of 236 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 3: like sagging in the places where people walk on them. Well, 237 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 3: they're solid marble. Where are they going? How do marble 238 00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:16,000 Speaker 3: steps wear away over the ages? It must be because 239 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 3: each person who steps on them removes some tiny, invisibly 240 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 3: small amount of matter. But that invisibly small amount of matter, 241 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,160 Speaker 3: those little atoms that are taken away accumulate over time 242 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 3: and the steps are worn down. But importantly for this discussion, 243 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 3: the atomists believed that there actually is such a thing 244 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 3: as empty space. In fact, it was core to their 245 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 3: theory that the universe was composed of atoms in motion. 246 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 3: Those atoms in motion needed a space through which to move, 247 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 3: and the atomists argued that if there were already something 248 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,800 Speaker 3: in the place an atom was moving too, the atom 249 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 3: couldn't move there because then two atoms would be occupying 250 00:14:56,920 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 3: the same space at once. So there had to be 251 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 3: such a thing as empty space. That was the only 252 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 3: way that such space could come to be occupied. You know, 253 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 3: there has to be space for things to move into 254 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 3: where nothing can move. But after this we get back 255 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 3: to Aristotle, because we mentioned him at the beginning of 256 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 3: the first episode in this series. For better or worse, 257 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 3: Aristotle would pretty much have the last word on this 258 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 3: question for centuries to come, until experiments in the seventeenth 259 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 3: century would strongly challenge his decree. But Aristotle says there 260 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 3: is no such thing as empty space. And I was 261 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 3: reading about the Aristotelian framework or foundation for the science 262 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 3: of the early modern period in the Cambridge History of Science, 263 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 3: volume three, edited by Lindberg at All. This was in 264 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,720 Speaker 3: a chapter called Physics and Foundations by the Princeton philosopher 265 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 3: Daniel Garber, and he makes some interesting points. But reading 266 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 3: this chapter, this is the way I was thinking about it. 267 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 3: So when we think of physics today, we usually of 268 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 3: it as a science contained within certain boundaries, like there 269 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 3: are certain kinds of questions that are physics questions, and 270 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,680 Speaker 3: there are other questions that are not physics. Is the 271 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,640 Speaker 3: study of properties of matter and energy something like that, 272 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 3: and that's a huge field, so you can ask tons 273 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,680 Speaker 3: of questions in it, like how are stars formed? Or 274 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 3: what is the relationship between particle mass and the Higgs field. 275 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 3: But if in a physics journal today you tried to 276 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 3: submit a paper on a question like what are the 277 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 3: basic modes of existence? And what is being? And what 278 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 3: is the relationship of those things? To say, God, this 279 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 3: would probably be rejected as outside the scope of the 280 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 3: physical sciences, you know, like the editors would say, you 281 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:47,680 Speaker 3: need to submit this to a different journal. However, this 282 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 3: attempted limitation of scope was not always present in fields 283 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 3: analogous to physics. Throughout history. There are many times in 284 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 3: history where these things really kind of blend together, or 285 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:04,240 Speaker 3: at least philosophical foundations are thought to have relevant things 286 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 3: to say about physics theories. So these philosophical foundations might 287 00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 3: include religious worldviews. So you could think about the way 288 00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:17,160 Speaker 3: that the scientists of the Islamic world in the Middle 289 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 3: Ages might have thought of Islam as a theological foundation 290 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,360 Speaker 3: for the sciences or the way that Christian natural philosophers 291 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 3: of Europe might have thought about Christianity in the same way. 292 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:32,119 Speaker 3: But in the West there was a major secular philosophical 293 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 3: foundation of early science also, and that was Aristotelianism, the 294 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:41,960 Speaker 3: philosophy of Aristotle and a fourth century BCE Greek philosopher. 295 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 3: And I think it's fair to say that for like 296 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 3: hundreds of years, in the schools and universities of medieval 297 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,560 Speaker 3: through early modern Europe, the philosophy of Aristotle was not 298 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 3: taught in the way that it would be taught in 299 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,480 Speaker 3: a college class today. Like today you would teach it 300 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,080 Speaker 3: like here is an interesting piece of intellectual history, maybe 301 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,600 Speaker 3: providing a certain point of view and showing the development 302 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 3: of how people thought about X, Y or z. Instead, 303 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:09,280 Speaker 3: I think it was often taught in a way that 304 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,000 Speaker 3: was closer to how people would have thought about the Bible. 305 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 3: It's like Aristotle said it. That pretty much settles it. 306 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:19,119 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So you end up with various discussions and 307 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: arguments coming down to either what Aristotle said or disagreements 308 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: over what Aristotle did say or meant, or what he 309 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,200 Speaker 1: would have said or meant about a given topic. 310 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,400 Speaker 3: Right, and to be clear, it wasn't always this way, 311 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 3: but it wasn't that everybody thought Aristotle was literally infallible. 312 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:40,120 Speaker 3: But it seems to me like he was often treated 313 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:44,320 Speaker 3: by the Scholastics as something approaching infallibility, like it was 314 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:47,960 Speaker 3: just ludicrous to question Aristotle, though in some cases people did. 315 00:18:58,119 --> 00:18:58,239 Speaker 1: So. 316 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,919 Speaker 3: We should discuss what Aristotle said as about the void. 317 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:06,399 Speaker 3: Aristotle denies the possibility of the existence of empty space, 318 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:10,919 Speaker 3: specifically in his book Physics Book four, and as is 319 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 3: so often true with these ancient philosophers, he makes his 320 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,800 Speaker 3: case for the non existence of a vacuum not by 321 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 3: doing an experiment and describing it, but by cold rationiocination. 322 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 3: He is going to reason his way out of having 323 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,840 Speaker 3: to believe in empty space. Garber, in his chapter quotes 324 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:31,119 Speaker 3: a translation of Aristotle for one of his arguments along 325 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:36,000 Speaker 3: these lines. Aristotle says, now it space or place has 326 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:40,440 Speaker 3: three dimensions length, breadth, depth, the dimensions by which all 327 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,679 Speaker 3: body is bounded. But the place cannot be body, for 328 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 3: if it were, there would be two bodies in the 329 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,280 Speaker 3: same place. What in the world then, are we to 330 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:54,879 Speaker 3: suppose place to be? And the implied answer is nothing, 331 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 3: So not to kind of interesting contradiction. It seems to 332 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 3: me at least that we had the atomists pointing to 333 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 3: the fact that two objects can't be in the same 334 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,120 Speaker 3: place at the same time to prove that there must 335 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,359 Speaker 3: be empty space, because remember, moving particles have to have 336 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,480 Speaker 3: unoccupied space to move into. And here Aristotle is using 337 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,400 Speaker 3: the same premise in a way to say that space 338 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 3: cannot exist independent of matter, or else it would have 339 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:25,040 Speaker 3: to occupy the same place as matter at the same time. 340 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:30,240 Speaker 3: But coming back to close, he summarizes Aristotle's arguments by saying, quote, 341 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 3: so for Aristotle, logics seem to require that empty space 342 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,919 Speaker 3: cannot be something and therefore is non existent. He defined 343 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,800 Speaker 3: the void as where there is no body, and since 344 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,159 Speaker 3: the basic elements of things exist eternally, there can be 345 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,879 Speaker 3: no place that is completely empty. Aristotle may have been 346 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 3: getting some mileage here out of confusion over the difference 347 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:57,159 Speaker 3: between empty space as something and like nothingness as in 348 00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 3: a way meaning non existence. 349 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:00,160 Speaker 1: Now. 350 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:03,400 Speaker 3: Garber, in his Physics and Foundations chapter writes that by 351 00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:06,720 Speaker 3: the thirteenth century, writers in the Scholastic tradition in Europe 352 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:11,679 Speaker 3: who believed in Aristotelian dogmas had begun assuming the existence 353 00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:15,960 Speaker 3: of a natural force known as horror vacui, again a 354 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 3: phrase that Aristotle himself did not use, but which aligned 355 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,399 Speaker 3: with his teaching on this matter, that nature would not 356 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:25,760 Speaker 3: permit a vacuum, and the scholastic writers characterize this as 357 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,959 Speaker 3: a force in nature which prevents vacuo from emerging, almost 358 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 3: like there's sort of a law of nature something going 359 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:36,679 Speaker 3: on that will not let a vacuum be created, and 360 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 3: thus forces matter to fill in the gaps. So you 361 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 3: can pump out that container as much as you want, 362 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:47,040 Speaker 3: but horror vacue will prevent it from actually being empty inside. 363 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,280 Speaker 3: And another interesting thing I wanted to flag here is 364 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:55,200 Speaker 3: that Garber notes a conflict between this Aristotelian dogma and 365 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 3: some religious reasoning that arose in the Church in the 366 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 3: thirteenth century that have led to the famous condemnations of 367 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 3: twelve seventy seven, where we've got a bishop condemning Aristotle. 368 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 3: So to read from Garber here quote one consequence was 369 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,720 Speaker 3: that without space outside of the finite world, not even 370 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,680 Speaker 3: God would seem to be able to move the universe 371 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 3: if he chose to do so. This apparent consequence of 372 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:26,920 Speaker 3: Aristotilian doctrine was rejected in the famous condemnation of Aristotle 373 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:31,359 Speaker 3: by Etienne Tempier, the Bishop of Paris, in twelve seventy seven, 374 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:35,480 Speaker 3: and then quoting in translation, here we condemned the proposition 375 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 3: that God could not move the heavens with rectilinear motion, 376 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,600 Speaker 3: and the reason is that a vacuum would remain so 377 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 3: Garber says, this really kind of put these scholastic Aristotilians 378 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 3: in a bind, because in some ways they had to 379 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 3: defend the possibility of some kind of empty space existing 380 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,639 Speaker 3: in the universe, at least potentially for theological reasons, but 381 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,320 Speaker 3: they didn't want to vile the principles of Aristotle, to 382 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:07,920 Speaker 3: which they were loyal. But anyway, going on, Frank Close 383 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,840 Speaker 3: makes an interesting argument that I think I would agree 384 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 3: with that we shouldn't be too hard on the prevailing 385 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:20,200 Speaker 3: Aristotelian belief in horror vacae because without special equipment and experiments, 386 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:22,880 Speaker 3: I don't know, it really just seems like that from 387 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,000 Speaker 3: everyday existence, like it seems like reality prevents voids from forming. 388 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,880 Speaker 3: Examples given by the ancient philosophers were things like, hey, 389 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:33,240 Speaker 3: you suck all the air out of an empty wine skin, 390 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 3: the wine skin collapses like it shrinks in removing the 391 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 3: air does not result in a void inside the skin. 392 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,040 Speaker 3: It causes the walls of the skin to shrink proportional 393 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 3: to the amount of air you're able to remove. You 394 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,399 Speaker 3: could also use this belief in nature's hatred for the 395 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:53,040 Speaker 3: vacuum to explain the workings of pumps and siphons. So 396 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,120 Speaker 3: beyond the fact that Aristotle said it, it just kind 397 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,360 Speaker 3: of seemed right with everyday experience. 398 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and you're not walking around your home 399 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:05,160 Speaker 1: and just suddenly walking into a vacuum, right, Like, even 400 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: the empty rooms are are full, They're teeming with matter. 401 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:13,760 Speaker 1: And these are I think all great examples where you 402 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,920 Speaker 1: could you can imagine someone saying, look proof right here, 403 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,440 Speaker 1: look at this wine skin. If you can form a 404 00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:21,920 Speaker 1: void in this wide skin, then I'll believe you. Otherwise, 405 00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:22,800 Speaker 1: absolutely not. 406 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 3: So while horror vakae had its critics for a long time, 407 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 3: I think it's safe to say that it was really 408 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:33,959 Speaker 3: like the seventeenth century where this idea was laid to rest. 409 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,439 Speaker 3: So coming back to this idea of like when you 410 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 3: suck on a straw, what is the force that actually 411 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 3: causes the liquid in your drink to rise up the 412 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,479 Speaker 3: straw into your mouth. You could imagine it as a 413 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 3: vacuum created that like sort of resists formation and thus 414 00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,480 Speaker 3: sucks the liquid up. The same question was actually raised 415 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:57,399 Speaker 3: around the year sixteen hundred and brought to the attention 416 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,600 Speaker 3: of Galileo. There are some examples of read about this. 417 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,160 Speaker 3: One is an example of I think a scientist sort 418 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 3: of at the time a natural philosopher who had been 419 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,280 Speaker 3: trying to construct a big siphon and encountered problems at 420 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 3: a certain height of the siphon. But then I've also 421 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 3: read about an influence here being people digging wells and 422 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 3: mine shafts who would try to remove water from these pits, 423 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,040 Speaker 3: using like plunger based pumps to lift the water out 424 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,920 Speaker 3: through a pipe. There was a problem in all these 425 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,360 Speaker 3: cases with the siphons and the pumps. Basically, the pumps 426 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:35,760 Speaker 3: stopped working after a certain height after the water was 427 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 3: raised roughly ten point three meters or so, when you 428 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 3: had ten point three meters worth of a column in 429 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 3: the pipe, it would stop going higher, wouldn't climb the 430 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,479 Speaker 3: pipe anymore, and instead a gap would appear between the 431 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 3: water column and the plunger or the piston or whatever 432 00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,719 Speaker 3: you're using to pump it out. So what's going on 433 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,239 Speaker 3: here was what was actually limiting the height of the 434 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,399 Speaker 3: water pump system. Well, Galileo investigated this question, and he 435 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 3: suspected that the force that drew water up through a 436 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,679 Speaker 3: pump or a siphon may in fact be the force 437 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:15,720 Speaker 3: of horror vacay. So the vacuum is resisting formation and 438 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:19,160 Speaker 3: thus pulling water up after itself. So when you try 439 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 3: to run the pump, the fact that the universe is 440 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 3: resisting creating a vacuum in that space in between is 441 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:26,920 Speaker 3: forcing water up. 442 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:32,040 Speaker 1: I love how this also kind of implies that Galileo 443 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:36,320 Speaker 1: was maybe not solving a physics problem, but responding to 444 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,119 Speaker 1: a pump problem. We get Galileo on the horn. We 445 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:40,920 Speaker 1: got a problem with this pump here. See if it 446 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:42,399 Speaker 1: has time he's afternoon to look at it. 447 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,680 Speaker 3: Well, I mean, that's a wonderful thing about Galileo. I mean, 448 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 3: he was at all ends of the spectrum right working 449 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 3: on theoretical problems and astronomy and everyday you know, mechanical 450 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 3: physics problems. But yeah, it is hilarious. Imagine. I don't 451 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,199 Speaker 3: know exactly when this was first raised to him, but 452 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,440 Speaker 3: it's fun to imagine somebody's like trying to get water 453 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,960 Speaker 3: out of their basement or their mind shaft, and they 454 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,040 Speaker 3: were just able to call up Galileo. 455 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:10,240 Speaker 1: Or maybe he arrives at his end. He's like a superhero. 456 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:14,040 Speaker 3: Yeah anyway, Yeah, so he imagines that maybe it is 457 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 3: the force of nature resisting the formation of a vacuum 458 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 3: that pulls the water up the pipe. But then at 459 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,320 Speaker 3: a certain point, the weight of the water in the 460 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,439 Speaker 3: pipe is too much. There's too much water, and the 461 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 3: vacuum resistance can't carry it any higher. It has reached 462 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 3: the limit of the strength of nature's resistance to a vacuum. 463 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:38,280 Speaker 3: So fascinating question, but Galileo never solved it in his lifetime. 464 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 3: Enter a couple of other figures. We got a guy 465 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,160 Speaker 3: named Gasparo Berti who lived sixteen hundred to sixteen forty three, 466 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,240 Speaker 3: and Evangelista Torricelli sixteen oh eight to sixteen forty seven. 467 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 3: That rob I got a picture of Torricelli for you 468 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,320 Speaker 3: to look at here. I think he is incredibly notable 469 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 3: for having a Batman symbol as a mustache. 470 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,399 Speaker 1: Yeah, certain portraits of this guy have it worse than others, 471 00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:15,600 Speaker 1: but yet it has this I guess it's sort of 472 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:21,199 Speaker 1: a Van Dyke, though in other portraits it really feels cruciform. 473 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:23,880 Speaker 1: It feels like I mean, it looks like he took 474 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,959 Speaker 1: a crucifix with flared arms and was perhaps kissing it 475 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:33,200 Speaker 1: so much that the barber had to shave him around 476 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: that crucifix, resulting in this hairstyle. It's a lot. 477 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 3: I want my muzzle to make you think of the passion. 478 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 3: It seems. It is a bold look. So these two 479 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,920 Speaker 3: Italian scientists, a Bertie and Torricelli performed similar experiments in 480 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,480 Speaker 3: the early sixteen forties that would clarify what was going 481 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 3: on here. Bertie did an experiment with water, and then 482 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 3: several years later Torcelli did a more definitive and more 483 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:04,600 Speaker 3: famous experiment with quicksilver, which we know today as elemental 484 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 3: liquid mercury. So Torricelli's experiment went like this. You would 485 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:14,320 Speaker 3: get a glass tube about one meter long and fill 486 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 3: it completely with liquid mercury. So this tube would be 487 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 3: closed completely at one end and open at the other. 488 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 3: So you fill it with liquid mercury, and you temporarily 489 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 3: plug up the open end, so one end is permanently closed. 490 00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,080 Speaker 3: One end put a finger over it to close it, 491 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 3: and then you flip the tube upright vertical and sit 492 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:39,520 Speaker 3: the open end down in a big basin of more 493 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:41,560 Speaker 3: liquid mercury. So you got it like a tub of 494 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,560 Speaker 3: liquid mercury. So you flip it up. You have the 495 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,600 Speaker 3: the plugged open end facing down into the lake of mercury, 496 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,480 Speaker 3: and then you unplug it. You remove the finger the plug. Now, 497 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 3: remember the tube started totally full of mercury, but now 498 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 3: that it's unplugged, the mercury can flow down into the 499 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,200 Speaker 3: basin with the rest of the mercury. And when he 500 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,480 Speaker 3: tried this, the mercury in the tube did fall, but 501 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,960 Speaker 3: not all the way. It fell to leave a column 502 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,719 Speaker 3: of mercury about seventy six centimeters in height, and then 503 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,360 Speaker 3: a gap for the rest of the tube length up 504 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,160 Speaker 3: at the closed top. So what was the gap, Well, 505 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:24,719 Speaker 3: Torricelli reasoned that it was actually a vacuum. There was 506 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:29,560 Speaker 3: effectively nothing inside the tube for those empty centimeters above 507 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 3: the column of mercury. The other guy, gasparo Berti, had 508 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,959 Speaker 3: performed a similar experiment with water several years before, and 509 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:42,160 Speaker 3: they both Both of these experiments seemed to provide evidence 510 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:47,000 Speaker 3: that it was indeed possible for empty space to exist, 511 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,440 Speaker 3: But the question remained, what was holding up the water 512 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,800 Speaker 3: in the tube, and why would the water only rise 513 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,720 Speaker 3: up the tube to a certain height, or, to put 514 00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,240 Speaker 3: it in another way, why would the liquid only fall 515 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,400 Speaker 3: down to a certain consistent height in the tube. The 516 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,000 Speaker 3: answer was also illuminated by Torricelli's experiment, for one thing, 517 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 3: by comparing the difference between the height of a water 518 00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,000 Speaker 3: column in a tube and the height of a mercury 519 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,120 Speaker 3: column in a tube. They were different because water and 520 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:22,239 Speaker 3: mercury have different densities, and so what Torricelli proposed, and 521 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,160 Speaker 3: what in fact was correct, is that the force that 522 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 3: kept the water or the mercury column raised in the 523 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 3: tube was actually the force of atmospheric pressure, the pressure 524 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,840 Speaker 3: of the air pushing down on the water or the 525 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 3: mercury in the basin below. And these tube systems assembled 526 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,800 Speaker 3: by Birdie and Torricelli were actually systems for establishing an 527 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,680 Speaker 3: equilibrium between the weight of the liquid in this column 528 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,239 Speaker 3: in the tube and the weight the atmosphere exerts on 529 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,120 Speaker 3: the liquid in the basin below. The liquid in the 530 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,560 Speaker 3: sealed tube would fall until the weight of the column 531 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 3: was equal to the atmospheric pressure, and then it would 532 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,760 Speaker 3: float and fall no more, leaving mostly a vacuum in 533 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:11,200 Speaker 3: the space above. However, there was another question. There was 534 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 3: the question of what is causing this. It was important 535 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,840 Speaker 3: to demonstrate that the vacuum was not the thing exerting 536 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 3: the force. Tori Shelley did this with another experiment involving 537 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:26,960 Speaker 3: two mercury tubes, one with a sort of bulb on 538 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:30,640 Speaker 3: the sealed top end. And the bulb would mean that 539 00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 3: a greater volume of empty space was left at the 540 00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 3: top when the liquid fell after the bottom was unplugged. 541 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 3: So would that make the mercury fall to a different level. 542 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,720 Speaker 3: And it turns out the extra empty space did not 543 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 3: matter at all. The liquid fell to the same height regardless. 544 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,760 Speaker 3: So the force exerted on the column of water in 545 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,600 Speaker 3: the pipe or the tube was not a pull from 546 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,200 Speaker 3: the vacuum. It was not a pull proportional to the 547 00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:00,160 Speaker 3: amount of vacuum created. It was a push proportional to 548 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,600 Speaker 3: the relationship between the atmospheric pressure and the density of 549 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 3: the liquid. And this was further demonstrated in experiments performed 550 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 3: by Blaze, Pascal and I think with some input from Descartes, 551 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:17,680 Speaker 3: but Blaize, Pascal and collaborators testing a similar experiment at 552 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,480 Speaker 3: different altitudes, so you might you test it at the 553 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,479 Speaker 3: foot of a mountain and then go up to the 554 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:24,479 Speaker 3: top of a mountain and test again and see if 555 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,680 Speaker 3: there are differences. And indeed they found that higher up 556 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,400 Speaker 3: on a mountain, the column of mercury would be lower 557 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 3: because the atmospheric pressure was lower. And in fact, these 558 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:38,960 Speaker 3: experiments and the apparatus used the apparatus what's the plural 559 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:43,040 Speaker 3: of that, apparati or apparatuses. Anyway, this stuff went on 560 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,680 Speaker 3: to become the basis of the invention known as the barometer, 561 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,160 Speaker 3: which is used to detect atmospheric pressure, and for much 562 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,280 Speaker 3: of history, one of the most common liquids used in 563 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,240 Speaker 3: it has been quicksilver or mercury. So people here in 564 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,720 Speaker 3: the seventeenth century had learned a number of things has weight. 565 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 3: The atmosphere does have weight, and it presses down and 566 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 3: this affects all different kinds of fluid dynamics in closed containers, 567 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:13,719 Speaker 3: and at least in an approximate sense, vacuums can be created. 568 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,600 Speaker 3: But the scientific story does not stop there, and maybe 569 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:18,560 Speaker 3: in the next episode we can get into a little 570 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:22,799 Speaker 3: more detail on that history, because there's plenty more. But 571 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 3: also we've got to talk about psychology and horror vacae 572 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 3: because I don't know about you, but you ever have 573 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,719 Speaker 3: that creepy feeling when you're reminded of like walking around 574 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,440 Speaker 3: at school when there was nobody there, or any other 575 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:38,920 Speaker 3: place when you were a kid that normally had people 576 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:40,600 Speaker 3: in it, but then there were no people in it 577 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:43,000 Speaker 3: and you were there and it just didn't feel right. 578 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 3: I think about that all the time. 579 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, And of course this plays into a lot of 580 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:49,319 Speaker 1: our horror movies as well, and a lot of our 581 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: fantastic horror scenarios. So we'll discuss some of those. But 582 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,759 Speaker 1: you know, this, coming back to this realization that the 583 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:03,000 Speaker 1: air has weight, that atmospheric pressure is evolved in these observations. 584 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: It's something that I feel, even as modern humans, we 585 00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:07,839 Speaker 1: have to remind ourselves of this time and time again, 586 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,120 Speaker 1: because we can also fall into that line of thinking 587 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,680 Speaker 1: where we think of an empty room as empty, we 588 00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:16,440 Speaker 1: think of a clear sky as being empty, but of 589 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,279 Speaker 1: course none of those things are empty. All of those 590 00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: things are completely filled up with air exerting a pressure 591 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:24,960 Speaker 1: on us, but a pressure that is so ambient that 592 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,040 Speaker 1: we do not register it as being pressure. 593 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,279 Speaker 3: Absolutely, and the way that this pressure affects other things, 594 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,279 Speaker 3: say like chemical properties. I think about the boiling point 595 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 3: of water and how that's affected by atmospheric pressure at 596 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,320 Speaker 3: different altitudes, and how that affects something as mundane as cooking. 597 00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 3: How like cooking has to be different at different altitudes. 598 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:47,279 Speaker 1: Yeah, Ultimately we have to realize that we are creatures 599 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 1: that evolve to reside within an atmospheric body, and even 600 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,960 Speaker 1: then only certain parts of that atmospheric body. And then 601 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,719 Speaker 1: if we want to bring fire with us and use 602 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:02,399 Speaker 1: it to boil matter to eat, we have to take 603 00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:04,880 Speaker 1: into account that it's going to boil a little differently 604 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:09,360 Speaker 1: depending on how far up into that massive body of 605 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:10,480 Speaker 1: air we travel. 606 00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,359 Speaker 3: We discussed this in a couple of episodes a long 607 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,880 Speaker 3: time ago. I think maybe they were the ones about 608 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,840 Speaker 3: sacred experiences on mountaintops people have had. But the fact 609 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 3: about how you basically like, you can't boil potatoes on 610 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,080 Speaker 3: top of Mount Everest. People have tried. You try to 611 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 3: boil food to cook it. The problem is the boiling 612 00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:31,399 Speaker 3: point of water after a certain altitude gets too low, 613 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,360 Speaker 3: and so your water is boiling in the pot, but 614 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,520 Speaker 3: it's not hot enough to cook your food, like boiling 615 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:41,160 Speaker 3: water is no longer sufficiently hot. Well, and of course 616 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,520 Speaker 3: it's boiling. You can't get any hotter than boiling, so 617 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:45,280 Speaker 3: you're just stuck like it won't cook. 618 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,080 Speaker 1: It's hard to come up with the response to that. 619 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:51,399 Speaker 1: I'd forgotten about that tidbit regarding cooking potatoes on Mount 620 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:56,239 Speaker 1: Everest for some reason. That's that's that's that's almost more 621 00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: or mind blowing than anything we've we've discussed in this episode. Yes, 622 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: because it comes down to what we were talking about earlier, 623 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:05,080 Speaker 1: like the perceived world, the world we can relate to, 624 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:09,719 Speaker 1: versus the world that seems to exist only within the 625 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: lofty conversations of philosophers and scientists. Like the experience of 626 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:19,879 Speaker 1: boiling potatoes but not being able to cook them through 627 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,000 Speaker 1: that boiling Like that feels like the twilight zone. That 628 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:24,480 Speaker 1: feels like something that shouldn't be. 629 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:26,799 Speaker 3: Rod Serling's kind of talking to you about this. 630 00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well we're going to go and close 631 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,200 Speaker 1: this episode out, but we'll be back with more discussions 632 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:37,239 Speaker 1: of the vacuum, the void, and so forth. In the meantime. 633 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,319 Speaker 1: Right into us, we'd love to hear from everyone out there, 634 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,960 Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about some of the ideas we 635 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,319 Speaker 1: presented in this episode, and hey, we would love to 636 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,680 Speaker 1: hear your cooking anecdotes from different altitudes if you have 637 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,479 Speaker 1: some of those right in. We'd love to hear about 638 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,600 Speaker 1: your mishaps with boiling potatoes and mountaintops. I know we 639 00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:58,879 Speaker 1: have some mountaineers out there. 640 00:37:59,280 --> 00:37:59,799 Speaker 3: Yes, we do. 641 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:02,840 Speaker 1: Reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a 642 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,360 Speaker 1: science podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On 643 00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:08,640 Speaker 1: Mondays we do a listener mail episode, on Wednesdays we 644 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:11,440 Speaker 1: do a short form artifact or monster fact episode, and 645 00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,399 Speaker 1: on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. That's our time 646 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:16,640 Speaker 1: to set aside most serious concerns and just talk about 647 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:17,360 Speaker 1: a strange film. 648 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:21,200 Speaker 3: Huge thanks to our audio producer JJ Posway. If you 649 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,280 Speaker 3: would like to get in touch with us with feedback 650 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,600 Speaker 3: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic 651 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:27,839 Speaker 3: for the future, or just to say hello, you can 652 00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 3: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind 653 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:39,160 Speaker 3: dot com. 654 00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:42,640 Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 655 00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:45,520 Speaker 2: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 656 00:38:45,680 --> 00:39:01,480 Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows. 657 00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:03,839 Speaker 2: The art