Thursday 18 February 2016

How empty are we? A nerdy challenge.

Anna invited his three friends Raga, Arke and Namo to his home for a party. The party was going on very well and they discussed many issues. Slowly, the discussion heated up and Raga said that he was the most intelligent among those invited. But Arke and Namo also made similar claims. This annoyed Anna and to resolve the issue, Anna gave them a challenge and whosoever won was to be given a dollar each by other two. They sat around a table and Anna started pouring water into a glass and filled it up to the midpoint of its height. Then they had the following conversation-

glass of water half full


Anna- On by one, you have to tell me whether this glass is half empty or half full. One who gives the right answer will win. Raga, you tell first.
Raga- Obviously, it is half empty.
Anna- And you Arke?
Arke- No, I think it is half full.
Anna- And what do you think Namo?
Namo- It is neither half empty nor half full. It is half filled with water and half filled with air. So, it is completely filled.
Anna looked at all them with disappointment.
Anna- Unfortunately, you all are wrong. Now stop fighting and enjoy the party.

But, how were they all wrong?  This is because Anna was smart and he knew that everything around us is pretty empty. Even a glass full of water is actually empty. To believe it we need to look things at the atomic level.

model of atom


Amazing atom- You and all the things around you are made up of atoms. An atom is made up of a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Nucleus consists of protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks. Electrons orbit around the nucleus at the speed of 2,200 Km/sec. At this speed you can travel around the earth in about 18 seconds. But the fact which Anna used is that an atom is 99.999999999999% empty space. If an atom would have been of the size of a football stadium then the nucleus would have been of the size of a pea at the center of the stadium.

Since, an atom is mostly empty space and everything is made up of atoms, we can say that everything is almost empty. But that empty space is not really empty and consists of quantum fluctuations. So, Anna could have given benefit of doubt to Namo but Anna was not in the mood of letting any of them win. 

Now, whenever we feel sad and have that feeling of emptiness, we know now that we were always like this, quite empty.


Resources-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNF3_30lUE

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