I have read about the experiment of Torricelli  , he filled a tube with mercury and placed it standing in a basin filled with mercury, then mercury poured out into the basin from the tube. He concluded that a vacuum was created.

The problem is I don't think that there is enough evidence to reach this conclusion. Maybe some air came through the mercury and filled the vacuum. Or maybe there is a space between the glass tube and mercury so air could come through that space.

How can one know that air can not move through the matter or there is no space between mercury and glass tube?

I would be glad if you answer this question without the assumptions of atomic theory because I don't know much about it. Thanks.

I have read about the experiment of Torricelli, he filled a tube with mercury and placed it standing in a basin filled with mercury, then mercury poured out into the basin from the tube. He concluded that a vacuum was created.

The problem is I don't think that there is enough evidence to reach this conclusion. Maybe some air came through the mercury and filled the vacuum. Or maybe there is a space between the glass tube and mercury so air could come through that space.

How can one know that air can not move through the matter or there is no space between mercury and glass tube?

I would be glad if you answer this question without the assumptions of atomic theory because I don't know much about it. Thanks.

I have read about the experiment of Torricelli , he filled a tube with mercury and placed it standing in a basin filled with mercury, then mercury poured out into the basin from the tube. He concluded that a vacuum had been created.

The problem is I don't think that there is enough evidence to reach this conclusion. Maybe some air came through the mercury and filled the vacuum. How can one know that air can not move through the matter?

I would be glad if you answer this question without the assumptions of atomic theory because I don't know much about it. Thanks.

I have read about the experiment of Torricelli , he filled a tube with mercury and placed it standing in a basin filled with mercury, then mercury poured out into the basin from the tube. He concluded that a vacuum was created.

The problem is I don't think that there is enough evidence to reach this conclusion. Maybe some air came through the mercury and filled the vacuum. Or maybe there is a space between the glass tube and mercury so air could come through that space.

How can one know that air can not move through the matter or there is no space between mercury and glass tube?

I would be glad if you answer this question without the assumptions of atomic theory because I don't know much about it. Thanks.