Intuitively, we all know its impossible to get something from nothing right? One can be forgiven for thinking this, after all its what we observe everyday in the world around us. But its not entirely correct. Under just the right conditions, its possible to produce a force from completely empty space, containing no matter and no measurable energy. This phenomenon is known as the Casimir Effect. Now remember, energy can be defined as the ability to do work, so no energy should equal no work. However, work is precisely what this Casimir Effect demonstrates, in the form of a measurable force. This seemingly impossible phenomenon appears to pull energy directly out of an empty vacuum. It turns out that even at absolute zero a vacuum is not truly empty on the quantum scale. On this level, at any instant, virtual particles pop into existence seemingly out of nowhere, then vanish just as quickly as they appeared. This gives rise to a huge energy-well known as vacuum energy. It is this hidden vacuum energy that the Casimir Effect exploits. And it occurs when a region of space is isolated in such a way that its net energy content becomes negative giving rise to a real force which can be measured.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:35:53 +0000
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