As an advanced second language speaker it’s important to be able to defend your position in an intellectual argument. In these English lessons I am going to put an opinion of mine or fact to you with some points you might like to argue about. The success of your English lesson and argument is simply you putting your point across to me (your teacher) and not the winning of the argument.
Preparation Video: Watch this short 3 minute video as a preparation for our discussion.
Here is my question:
What is nothing?
From a physics point of view, “nothing” is a very interesting idea, and it is not as simple as just “empty” or “zero.” In everyday life, when we say “nothing,” we often mean a place where there is no object, like an empty box. But in physics, even if you remove all the air and objects from a box, you still do not have true “nothing.” This is because space itself, even when it looks empty, is filled with things like energy, invisible particles that appear and disappear, and fields like gravity, gases and electromagnetism. Scientists call this “vacuum,” but a vacuum is not completely empty. Tiny particles called “virtual particles” can pop in and out of existence for a very short time, and this makes the vacuum full of activity. Also, space has energy even when there is no matter in it, which is called “vacuum energy.” So, in physics, true “nothing” does not really exist because even empty space has properties and things happening in it. In summary, “nothing” in physics is much more complicated than just empty space, because there is always something happening, even when we cannot see it.
Debating Questions:
Below are a number of questions. The teacher will ask the student the question and the student is expected to formulate an answer. The teacher will then challenge the student with further questions. The student must defend the position.
1. What do you think “nothing” means in your daily life?
2. Can you give an example of a place where you think there is “nothing”?
3. Is it possible for a place to be truly empty? Why or why not?
4. How do you think scientists or physicists describe “nothing”?
5. Why do you think space is not really empty, even if we cannot see anything there?
6. What do you know about things like air or atoms that are too small to see? Do they count as “nothing”?
7. Have you ever heard of “vacuum” in science? What does it mean? Give me an example of where a vacuum might exist.
8. Do you think “nothing” is just the absence of things, or can “nothing” have its own properties?
9. How do you feel about the idea that “nothing” might still have energy or particles?
10. Why do you think understanding “nothing” is important for science or philosophy?