How much is popping into and out of

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the concept of virtual particles and their existence within a cubic meter of space. It is established that virtual particles do indeed pop in and out of existence, but their overall mass contribution to the universe is effectively zero. The conversation suggests that while these particles can behave like real particles under certain conditions, their transient nature means they do not accumulate mass in a measurable way. The inquiry into quantifying these particles in relation to the universe's volume remains speculative and unquantified.

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  • Basic principles of particle physics
  • Familiarity with the concept of spacetime
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udtsith
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If you took the entire volume of space...how much mass is popping into and out of existence at anyone time?
 
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Zero.
 
I thought there were virtual particles popping into and out of a existence...my thought process was that if we could know how many pop into/out of in a cubic meter of space you could multiply that times the volume of the universe and then get an interesting fact...e.g. the size of a baseball/every second ... or am I completely wrong in my understanding? from wiki, it seems that virtual particles do exist and act like real particles the longer they exist. I don't know.
 

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