Curious Kids: is there such a thing as nothing?

By Jacco van Loon, Astronomer, Keele University

Is there such a thing as nothing? – Reggie, aged seven, Darlington

Could someone see nothing? What does nothing look like? – Maya, aged nine, Bristol

Imagine you hear a noise outside your window. You think it might be a dog barking, or maybe a child shouting. But when you get up and have a look, there’s no dog or child. “Oh,” you say, “there’s nothing there.”

We often say we’ve “got nothing”, or that there’s “nothing there”. But what we mean is that we haven’t got a particular thing. When you looked outside, lots of things were…

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