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In Figure 2, we have two metal plates that are placed closely together. The vacuum pressure on the outside of the plates remains normal. Between the plates, things are different. The fact that there is a limited amount of space between the plates means that fewer virtual particles exist between the plates than on the outside of them. Thus, the pressure between the plates is lower than that on the outside of them and they are pushed together. This is called the Casimir Effect. The existence of this effect proves that vacuum fluctuations can exert a net force when one part of the vacuum contains more energy than another part of it.