eli5 how did scientist like Newton discover that space was a true vacuum?
In: Planetary Science
The theory of gravitation explains how planets they could observe behaved provided there is no medium producing drag to slow them down. Two options: there is a medium that is unlike anything they had experienced before and magically doesn’t produce drag (aether) or there is nothing there.
Basically because barometers were invented. That’s the first time air pressure could be measured, and scientists discovered that as you go higher in altitude (eg. by climbing a mountain) the air pressure decreases. So you extrapolate that and find that if you get high enough the pressure would reach zero.
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