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Nothing comes from nothing 1

Nothing comes from nothing

Nothing comes from nothing (Latin: ex nihilo nihil fit ) is a philosophical expression of a thesis first argued by

Parmenides. It is associated with ancient Greek cosmology, such as is presented not just in the opus of Homer and

Hesiod, but also in virtually every internal system € there is no break in between a world didn't exist, since it couldn't

be created ex nihilo in the first place. Note that Greeks also believed that things cannot disappear into nothing, just as

they can't be created from nothing, but if they ceased to exist, they transform into some other form of being. We can

trace this idea to the teaching of Empedocles. Today the idea is loosely associated with the laws of conservation of 

mass and energy.[citation needed ]

 De Rerum Natura

The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius expressed this principle in his first book of  De Rerum Natura (eng. title

On the Nature of Things)

Principium cuius hinc nobis exordia sumet,

nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus umquam.[1]

English translation:

But only Nature's aspect and her law,

Which, teaching us, hath this exordium:

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.[]

He then continues on discussing how matter is required to make matter and that objects cannot spring forth without

reasonable cause.

Nam si de nihilo fierent, ex omnibus rebus

omne genus nasci posset, nil semine egeret.

e mare primum homines, e terra posset oririsquamigerum genus et volucres erumpere caelo;

[2]

English translation

Suppose all sprang from all things: any kind

Might take its origin from any thing,

No fixed seed required. Men from the sea

Might rise, and from the land the scaly breed,

And, fowl full fledged come bursting from the sky;[]

 King LearIn William Shakespeare's  King Lear, the king's daughter Cordelia is unable to put her love for him into words,

saying, "my love•s More ponderous than my tongue" (Act 1.1). The king says, "Nothing will come of nothing",

meaning that as long as she says nothing to flatter him, she will receive nothing from him.[3]

Later, Lear nearly

repeats the line, saying, "Nothing can be made out of nothing" (Act 1.1 and Act 1.4 respectively).

"KING LEAR: ..what can you say to draw

A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.

KING LEAR: Nothing?!

CORDELIA: Nothing.

KING LEAR: Nothing will come of nothing, speak again.

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Nothing comes from nothing 2

The Sound of Music

In Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music as Captain Von Trapp and Maria sing the song Something Good 

they both sing the line "Nothing comes from nothing nothing ever could" in reference to their childhood's influence

on their relationship.

Modern physics

The law of conservation of energy states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed; it merely changes form. A

zero-energy universe hypothesis states that the total amount of energy in the universe is exactly zero. That is the only

kind of universe that could come from nothing, assuming such a zero-energy universe is, already, nothing.[4]

Such a

universe needs to be flat, a state which does not contradict current observations that the Universe is flat with a 0.5%

margin of error.[5]

It is important, however, to recognize what a physicist may mean by the word nothing. Some

physicists, such as Lawrence Krauss, define nothing as an unstable quantum vacuum that contains no particles.[6]

This is incompatible with the philosophical definition of nothing, since it can be defined by certain properties such as

space, and is governed by natural laws. Indeed, many philosophers criticize these physical explanations of how the

universe arose from nothing, claiming that they merely beg the question.

[7][8][9]

References

[3] Commentary on King Lear by Dr. Larry A. Brown, Professor of theater (http:/   /  larryavisbrown.  homestead.  com/  files/  Lear/  lear_Ia_notes.

htm#nothing)

[4][4] by Alexei V. Filippenko and Jay M. Pasachoff 

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