What is a sonata in layman's terms?

Can anyone explain Zero Point Energy and Vacuum Energy in laymans terms?

• I'm curious about how these work but I don't know much about Quantum Mechanics. I checked Wikipedia, but the info on there assumes you have a base understanding of Quantum Mechanics. Can anyone explain these things in laymans terms without using a lot of technical lingo? Or is it simply not possible to understand these concepts without first understanding Quantum Mechanics?

• Answer:

  This is the basic idea: quantum mechanics states there is an inherent limit to the accuracy with which one can measure any physical system, including total emptiness. That is because there is an inherent, unavoidable uncertainty at very small measurement scales. It means that, while it's impossible to create 'something-ness' out of nothing, it IS possible for a photon (a massless packet of energy) to split into a particle and its corresponding antimatter particle -- those two particles then attract each other and vanish into a photon just like the first, but traveling in a random direction. The net effect is zero, which preserves the laws of physics. But if the process is somehow interrupted, it's possible in principle to use this momentary violation as an unlimited source of power. We don't know how to do this yet, but if we figure it out that will be the way to fly to the stars, powered by space itself. We would need no fuel tank!