Is it possible to create a perfect vacuum? - Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat

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The universe is bustling with matter and energy. Even in the vast, apparent emptiness of intergalactic space, there’s one hydrogen atom per cubic meter. But is there such thing as a total absence of everything? Is it possible to make a completely empty space? Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat explain the science behind vacuums.
Lesson by Rolf Landua and Anais Rassat, directed by Karrot Animation.
Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible.
Mircea Oprea, Megan Whiteleather, Adil Abdulla, Steven LaVoy, Mayank Kaul, Ryohky Araya, Vivian James, Tan YH, Brittiny Elman, Mayra Urbano, Ruth Fang, David & Pamela Fialkoff, Miami Beach Family, Kostadin Mandulov, Alex Schenkman, Matteo De Micheli, Hachik Masis Bagdatyan, Sdiep Sriram, Ivan Todorović, Caz Galloway.

[@Mswordx23]

Today I learned that a cubic meter of nothing weighs 4 protons.

[@harithoma-a-8157]

Wait are you still alive? You haven't posted any SU soundtrack in years

[@fjtappedout4623]

Mswordx23 wait you’re here? Why did you stop making Steven universe videos!

[@blockyhour4224]

*doesnt respond*

[@adhritgulati6794]

Haha

[@hamburgerhamburger4064]

Dang it! I can’t add that much extra weight!

[@MrHarsh3600]

It's possible. My brain cavity is a perfect vacuum. Lol

[@lazarmendel3784]

Gregory Gaming nope

[@lazarmendel4747]

Gregory Gaming nope

[@bentron5228]

Gregory Gaming nope

[@edwardlaow]

Gregory Gaming nope

[@Nico-pb1sr]

@@Gregory_12 nope

[@ruler_riley1687]

What amazing animation! That must've taken alot of work. I enjoyed the ending statement as well!

[@BillAnt]

So when talking about total vacuum, at 0:36 they bust out a vacuum cleaner... bahaha... after all, Hoover has the perfect vacuum! Tsk-Tsk

[@munendersingh5631]

Ggy

[@oyunbold9186]

666 pogchamp

[@Pomodorosan]

"alot" bruh really

[@aseth9541]

I love this animation.

[@snowballeclipse4991]

I do too.

[@ahitler5592]

Seth bike hacks

[@Benjijart]

3:50 except when the sun is smaller than Jupiter 😂

[@amarafray5431]

true

[@PFGFrankly]

Adit Seth best one ever

[@cooldude56g]

Even if there were such a thing as a perfect vacuum, it wouldn't be observable. To confirm it's vacancy, we'd need to send a particle (like a photon) through the vacuum itself to see if it bounces back. If it does, it's not a perfect vacuum, if it doesn't, it's still not perfect because now the space has that single particle in it, and we have no idea where it's at because of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, unless we confirm it's position with another particle. The more we try to confirm a perfect vacuum as perfect, the less perfect it becomes. A perfect vacuum is impractical even as a theory.

[@alisonlaett9625]

Thank you this explanation made so much sense

[@santanudas7623]

Thanks a lot man

[@YamenNazer]

You are good💜

[@Shark-kawaii104]

Maybe we can use energy instead of matter Or are they equal?(E=mc2

[@let4be]

​@@Shark-kawaii104 have enough energy say in photons and their collision may produce electron/positron pair which has mass ;)

[@biaslina]

0:24 Ted : I'm gonna make big bang animation and it will be great KZbin compression : I'm gonna end this man career

[@user-kn6jg8kj6d]

I thought it's my phone problem lol

[@ShomeAvi]

??

[@TheScienceBiome]

I now know that Nature abhors a vacuum.

[@daltongrowley5280]

you can find that out by running one near a cat.

[@columbus8myhw]

As do dogs.

[@samreads]

Nature doesn't care either way. Nature just is what it is.

[@danconnor8422]

The Science Biome Tell that to the Dark Matter.

[@koushalkumar2822]

Woaah animation is really great in this video

[@luifengze]

Forgot the last step: removing space time

[@umapessoa9927]

Well, time and space are part of the gravitacional quantum field.

[@radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9]

and yo momma

[@streetwind.]

This animation was one of the best on the whole channel! Down to tiny details like the little shuttle-lookalike at the end using only its orbital maneuvering engines to move in space, as is proper. Karrot Animation knows what they're doing!

[@bojjitdn]

The animations and narration in this video has been one of the best ones so far!!

[@ramekin4797]

_“Let’s say you’ve somehow removed all of the atoms, and blocked all of the radiation, is the space totally empty?”_ Quantum field: *Well yes, but actually no.*

[@joshuadominic2116]

TED-ED, YOUR ANIMATIONS ARE GETTING BETTER AND BRIGHTER EVERY TIME I JUST CAN'T.

[@mrwaffles1314]

wat dO yOu mEaN

[@deadchannel5933]

IT'S YOUR* NOT YOU'RE! IT HURTS MY BRAIN 110010101010919% SEEING THIS!!!????

[@joshuadominic2116]

Minecraft Player1197 thanks for the input. Now study percentages now.

[@rag14473866]

The animation of this lesson was simply amazing.

[@XenderHD]

Say my principle Heisenberg You're god damn right

[@rohanmalik90]

Xender Gatsu breaking bad much!

[@ladygrinningsoul357]

I thought the same too 😁

[@lazerwing3022]

i hate to be a nitpick but why is jupiter bigger than the sun in the animation at 3:45?

[@lazerwing3022]

probs right about that still kinda weird tho....

[@fishstew2573]

perspective. angle. come on

[@aidanwhite6617]

@@fishstew2573 wait a couple seconds

[@firenzarfrenzy4985]

Just an animation error in scale

[@samarth3957]

Who cares? We get the idea.

[@mackycabangon8945]

Oh god atoms and particles look soo cute..

[@mrwaffles1314]

ya know what i agreee

[@smartart6841]

But in the real world... they dont bad. But not so good either They dont look at all. They are smaller than light so light doesnt bounce of them, thus making them impossible to see

[@Reactiontime6000]

You are watching a video about quantum physics and you mention how the atoms are *c u t e*

[@jayashrishobna]

This animation is freaking amazing. One of my favourite topics depicted in such an awesome way. Great job TED-Ed! :D

[@mjmulenga3]

A small note on 3:05 particles don't "set off the ripples" in quantum fields. The ripples themselves are the particles.

[@EpicFox]

And this video left us with tons of questions, where there is only one question in the title. If there is perfect 100% vacuum, then it's out of what we know as Universe, that means It's even not what we know as space, there is no time. In general you can say It's out of our universe. It's out side of our expanding universe (Space and time), and will be always out of our reach. If you try to observe the perfect vacuum, you will make that vacuum into something. All over what vacuum is, it's unexcited.

[@aperson22222]

No, I don't believe it is possible. I've tried several times, but the vacuums I created all sucked.

[@nel6745]

aperson22222 RIP

[@zombieblood1675]

Lol

[@blackout5733]

i think you should see a doctor

[@josepha377]

SON OF A

[@ImKovie]

Beach

[@sebastien-loikntsangou-kan5264]

I've always wondered about this. I once heard that a tiny change in the Higgs Field can destroy reality as we know it. (I don't know if it is true, it's just what I'd heard.)

[@aperson22222]

Sebastien-Loik Ntsangou-Kanda Give it a try!

[@dustinhackel6066]

Kurzgesagt - In a nutshell made a video about this topic. Short answer: yes

[@minutebrainperson8324]

Good thinking, but there is a difference between a field that has a non-zero average value (the Higgs field) and a field which has no fluctuations. Imagine a bed sheet with an upwards bump and an equally deep downwards bump. The average bump depth is zero, but obviously the sheet is not flat. The bumps are in essence a particle-antiparticle pair. In quantum fields, these bumps may occur spontaneously (they are fluctuations, the magnitude of which are determined by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle). Making the Higgs field zero-average would not rid you of these spontaneous particle pairs.

[@sebastien-loikntsangou-kan5264]

Minute brain person Thanks for the clarification.

[@minutebrainperson8324]

No trouble, but looking back at your comment I realise I didn't really reply to what you said... Got a bit ahead of myself. What you said is true provided the current Higgs field is not in the ground state (this could fundamentally change the masses of certain particles, like the W and Z bosons), but as far as I know the working hypothesis is that this is not true.

[@blabla-rg7ky]

those particles are so cute. I love the blue one traveling through that tube :)

[@MusiCaninesTheMusicalDogs]

Beautiful video!

[@WoodenWeaponry]

1:28 Best thing I've seen today

[@Honeybreee]

2:58 "I am the one who vibrates against your door creating sound waves in a way known as a knock!"

[@yohansaldana8218]

How to make a vacuum. Remove all: Matter Light Energy Quantum fields Forces Motion Sound Time Quantum entanglements

[@yohansaldana8218]

@@shivekdoda1603 what happened to your leg?

[@yohansaldana8218]

@@shivekdoda1603 it's been one month and your the only guy who replied.

[@SVC-hz6dq]

Ooofff... All right, done. What next?

[@anhdt1911]

@@SVC-hz6dq me next

[@liamvf1069]

Instructions unclear Accidentally resurrected Stalin

[@rice_powder]

This video has many academic words that it is so difficult for me to apparently listen, but I would try to understand and script it. Many thanks to TED team

[@jotarokujo9894]

Awesome animation👍👍👍

[@JohnCena8351]

Isn't there a perfect vacuum in between every little particle? It's very small, yes, but it is one, isn't it?

[@dragon98ify]

No not really because of the quantum fluctuations. And also at this extremely small scale you can't define a position for these particles so there isn't really an in between

[@chaoswebz]

did you watch the video?

[@xpandaman777x]

Thank God John Cena is spreading the word of science

[@kcwidman]

dragon98ify you can define a position of a hydrogen atom. You could have a small space that has literally 0 matter in it, but it would still have other things in it like photons for example.

[@dragon98ify]

sure but that wouldn't be a perfect vacuum

[@savierosj74]

this is by far the best video of ted ed... loved it.. and also the graphics was sick!! awesome!!

[@bnodtwari3067]

TED ED always finds something interesting and work looking for us this is why I love this

[@rhoda1051]

Ted-Ed has taught me more information than school has since the first day I've started going.

[@MichaelMyers-po9je]

Rhoda it only teaches you certain topics. It really never taught you how to read write multiple divide etc

[@SubfeedSub]

you would never understand this video without knowing about protons, elektrons and neutrons. As well as volumes, sub-atomic particles and radiation, just to name a bit of the stuff used in the video. :)

[@lambsauce9139]

yet you still failed english

[@davidm.2244]

+Rhoda You have learned all the important basics in school. This video just gave you information without the context so you cannot even really understand them.

[@samitapan6174]

Lamb Sauce savage!!!!

[@rorychang9965]

Surely if the universe is expanding into nothing, then there is a perfect vacuum, its just outside our reach?

[@Cleeon]

Very good analyze and explanation

[@drewofearth6681]

What a gem of a summary. Good stuff

[@loocie4636]

Goodness such a big ring

[@YTuseraL2694]

I've heard that quantum fluctuations are creating particles/energy out of nothing all the time, but pairs of those particles (matter-antimatter) are annihilating each other in a incomprehensible small amount of time so the law of conservation of energy is preserved. Thus, if we could somehow find a way to harvest useful energy from quantum fluctuations efficiently (or even manipulate it, maybe in a far, far future) we could say that it is a perpetuum mobile of some kind, or new literally infinite energy source? Nice...

[@mianfazlerazik3636]

I wish there could be more videos like these

[@riquaza5946]

So, another question. What would happen in a perfect vaccum chamber and the space and time aroud it? (Sorry for my english)

[@vaultecblue5]

I gotta be honest..... Ted is the best in animation!!!

[@mrwaffles1314]

i agree LIKE IF YOU AGREE TOO!

[@kilonova9535]

That hydrogen atom is the cutest atom I’ve ever seen.

[@ratoim]

Liked for the derpy expressions on the particles.

[@UniqueliAnimationsSN]

The illustration on this one is really nice

[@shayminmilo6937]

Dyson: Am I a joke to you?

[@saumyashah7978]

I know a perfect vacuum: My enemy's head.

[@clarenceviduya5896]

Ty Ted ed your visuals have improved over the years.

[@sam4395]

Ohhh TedEd! I will never stop being amazed by your works! Soooo illuminating!!!!!!!

[@NoorAhmed-cz7cl]

Total absence of every thing ... thats my mind

[@janhavibhonge3349]

1:25 me af

[@LiamLimeLarm]

this was uploaded on my birthday!

[@AryaZulfikar]

well this is the best animation i've ever seen in TedEd. Cant wait for next videos.

[@ianthebubbian6182]

1:30 Who else thought that looked like a lot of Orange Juices

[@mrwaffles1314]

me!

[@JK_JK_JK_JK]

Is it possible to create a Perfect President?!?! 🤔😏👍

[@toastsoup7064]

Abe Lincoln.

[@mrwaffles1314]

uhhh probaly

[@bigmock141]

Yes

[@alphagamma1289]

Too subjective. There will always be a citizen who hates the president. Unless you are governing a country with so little people.

[@anishasapkota2270]

Wow the animation is too good. Hats off!

[@abhijitaravind3308]

Really nice and informative

[@JoshuaOtusanya]

*TED! You've motivated me to start KZbin and I'm only at 3,303 but I'm loving making videos a ton. Thank you!*

[@xanri7673]

*Yay for all bold!*

[@AkerCW]

ninja bold spam

[@mrjroxas416]

Vetoed Impersonator sorrt hard

[@RandomAsianGuy95]

from 3,303 subs no 2.42 million subs. youve come a long way

[@ilanzatonski8826]

Prediction: it depends

[@joachimtauro5947]

I haven't seen this type of animation since ages

[@Bernardo40882]

What a powerful animation.

[@ContinualImprovement]

Chuck Norris can create a perfect vacuum.

[@SubjektDelta]

between his palms

[@nivdexbram]

Funny meme, you got that from 9gag 2010?

[@rajeshsharmajaipur]

I am Chuck Norris, and i cant.

[@SubjektDelta]

It never get's old

[@Valentin_Teslov]

I find Chuck Norris jokes extremely awmusing. The good ones at least

[@PapaSeed]

That background music is annoying

[@mrwaffles1314]

I LIKE THE BACKROUND MUSIC!!!

[@tricksterrblx866]

Love the animation in this video it is like a 3d adventure

[@kaedematthewbicomong2335]

Of course it's possible, you guys already make my head feel perfectly empty

[@loocie4636]

What happened to the guy

[@mimerafm3794]

-Lucy- -He- commenting at the speed of light

[@robertleitch1050]

No I just saved 4.5 minutes of your time

[@PerceptionVsReality333]

Thanks

[@christiandevey3898]

Robert Leitch damn, to late

[@user-tq3yy2km2n]

Robert Leitch some heroes don't wear capes

[@BumanHeing]

Robert Leitch...But we learned a lot from this video...which u didn't teach

[@alphagamma1289]

I guess, but there was a lot more to be learned, and really if u didn’t want to sit through a measly 4.5 minutes, USE GOOGLE. *smh*

[@ambra-stella8129]

awesome! looooved the video! More please :)

[@rodrikforrester6989]

Notification squad

[@aman27asad]

Add a public comment

[@FBI-bm4kx]

Aman Aset Add Deez nuts

[@lakshmimusaloj3021]

Excellent improvement

[@siddharthpathak4780]

Fascinating..!

[@thoriso1000]

Put Trump in the centre of a room and wait...

[@ButterBallTheOpossum]

Kutlwano Sesing Hahaha yeah that would expell everything and everyone.

[@MundoGamesDo]

Hahahahah another Trump joke

[@alphagamma1289]

But he’ll fill it with walls

[@rexhd7556]

Yes it is, best example is Donald Trumps Head.

[@pitig1970]

Rex HD no

[@aperson22222]

Brazilball, Lord of South America Yes

[@SG-bp4lg]

Stop bringing politics into everything. Please for the love of god.

[@rexhd7556]

Scrubs 2009 lemme make some fun man

[@hazzmati]

Rex HD why don't you move to edgeville. It seems you'd fit right it. Also why don't you become president if it seems that easy

[@sathishkumar-ic2ub]

2:54 I don't know why but..... I love that animation.

[@richardsaxon]

With the LHC what if you basically turned it into a wind tunnel so that all the molecules are moving fast before then venting the chamber? wouldn't the molecules maintain a high speed? as less and less friction to slow down and eventually make there way out via a pump?

[@sehriyarnesirov6549]

I LOVE YOU TED-ED THIS IS GEAT ANIMATION THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[@LukeZain]

superb animations.

[@StealthlessGaming]

I love the little music

[@vinniepeterss]

the animation is fantastic

[@jay-tbl]

The fluctuating quantum fields animation reminds me of the ending of FEZ.

[@goutambiswas2960]

lovely video

[@Phant0mZ_360]

Vacuums creates an ENORMOUS amount of negative pressure so that’s really hard

[@martymitch8375]

I like the fact that the animated scientists in this video have already been used

[@fishyeverything8530]

marty mitch i was scrolling for 2 minutes just to see if I'm the only one who noticed

[@mrwaffles1314]

yeah i noticed that!

[@quantumofspace1367]

I have a great idea! For the dark side of the Universe - suppose that it consists of short-term interactions in long-lived fractal networks, the smallest operators of quantum energy - spherical «rosebuds», consisting of a large number; 1 - rolled into a sphere, 2 - half folded into a sphere and 3 - flat, vibrating quantum membranes relative to their working centers in the sphere.

[@SGoodman]

Is there a unit of measurement (SI) for suction?

[@rxzhou1859]

Thanks very much！

[@Barnardrab]

Imagine building a large hadron collider in space and running it there. Sounds like it would be easier to maintain.

[@veranet99]

Those particles had me laughing.

[@jameselliott9397]

Which takes more energy to produce, pressure or vacuum?

[@mufaddalmanaquib8496]

Its beautiful. Who is respnsible for quantum field fluctuations?

[@weienkoh6635]

yay two videos in two days :)

[@ddmagee57]

A well-worn topic, but you showed an excellent viewpoint of the subject.

[@madenita1693]

When i hear word vacuum all i remember is my termos 😂😂

[@dreamgaming8471]

Animation goals

[@sussekind9717]

Professor Lawrence Krauss has often been heard saying that empty space weighs something. I never could quite understand what he meant. Thank you for this video. I Now understand a bit more about what he means.

[@impatientgaming9868]

Good one

[@studyjin2908]

loved it

[@chandlersupple3553]

Spot on!

[@karenmkrtchyan5701]

Ted-ed is firing up! Two vids within two days is too much pleasure

[@noimodimi9020]

This is the best video that I ever watched from TED.