Imagine we have a box full of space. It is empty of everything except what we call the vacuum of space.
Let’s just imagine it has exactly 1 cubic meter of space inside.
Now what happens if we create a particle inside? This could be a particle like a proton or a neutron, which make up the nucleus of all atoms, or even a particle of light (these are called photons.) So then here’s the question:
How much space is now in the box? Is it 1 cubic meter less the volume of the particle? Or is it still 1 cubic meter of space?
The basic hypothesis of The New Physics is that there is still 1 full cubic meter of space in the box, along with the new particle. The space in the box has been displaced by the created particle, not replaced as everyone used to think. This very simple idea has enormous consequences for physics.
This may seem like a crazy idea until you recall our previous discussion about space acting like a material. Putting a new particle into space is like putting a ball bearing into a foam block:
In the next post we’ll present some strong evidence that this is what is happening when a particle is created.