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I remember something about "The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" in astronomy...but the example above, (the millimeter ball) has me completely lost.

"toward a smooth plate in response to energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space. "

....what is the vacuum" and how was it created in the experiment? Sorry in advance if this is a completely naive elementary question..

I admit I'm getting close to the edge of my knowledge here. IIRC, quantum theory says the vacuum and its energy fluctuations underlie all matter and energy. That means the experiment doesn't need to CREATE a vacuum; its effects are always present.

Physicist, am I on the right track here or just spinning my wheels?

I like the phenomenon that has been detected around Black holes as the example that makes the most concrete sense...
The reason vacuum energy is so hard to detect is that two events happen simultaneously...an electron and its opposite or antimatter particle a positron...appear spontaneously in a sort of circular path going in opposite directions and their trajectories always curve back in and they collide annihilating each other so precisely that no remnant of their existance remains in our universe...This Quantum event happens everywhere, it just is impossible to be there exactly when it happens with any certainty...At the event horizon of a black hole...the gravitational pull is so strong that these little trajectories don't complete their manifest destiny and annihilate each other...little orphaned particles and antiparticles MISS their anti's and survive...and this causes radiation that is detectable...Hawking surmised that this effect exists and there has been some observational evidence that indeed Black holes DO produce the predicted amount of radiation to indicate this unique behavior...