From post: 156337, Topic: tid=10440, author=-splosives- wrote:Vacuum is not nothing. There's a lack of mass, but there's still what we call "spacetime" and "dark matter" and all that jazz.
What I mean is that the word "energy generator" should be replaced by "energy converter" regardless of where the energy comes from.
Actually, energy can come from nothing (a vacuum) in the form of paired particles as long as they recombine and within a very very short period of time. It's when you can capture one of the particles with a BH that allows the other to escape. The captured particle pairs with a particle of matter inside the BH and they pair disappear, reducing the BH's energy (=mass) and so it appears from the outside that the BH has emitted a particle and lost mass.
Stephen Hawkin's idea - not mine
Whatever it is, if it turns out that it really is, Dark Matter isn't vacuum and Dark Energy is a force screwing with gravity - it's not energy. A vacuum is full of quantum fluctuations on a scale that makes sub atomic particles look enoooormooous. It's from these fluctuations that pairs of particles can appear (and disappear), so that energy conservation isn't broken.
There's a tentative new suggestion that extensions to the theory can explain where the singularity for the Big Bang came from - side tracking the question of "if the universe started with a big bang, where did that come from?"
I just love this stuff (though as the man said - "if you think you understand this, you weren't listening properly!" and my frustration with having to die is that I won't find out how it all ends!! I'd love to travel through a jump gate!
