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(Big Think)   When you bring your thumb and forefinger together, do the atoms within them ever really "touch"?   (bigthink.com) divider line
44
    More: Interesting, Atom, Electron, Atomic nucleus, Molecule, Pauli exclusion principle, Gravity, Physics, Particle  
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1059 clicks; posted to STEM » on 27 Jan 2023 at 11:55 AM (8 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



44 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 10:33:35 AM  
no
 
HugeMistake [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 10:39:18 AM  
Define "touch".
 
dhcmrlchtdj [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 10:54:57 AM  
No. No touching... yet. First, two atoms' valence electrons shyly flirt with each other as their... urges... build and build, and then they look deep into each others' core electrons and their nucleii fuse, becoming one, in an explosive burst of passionate ecstasy.
 
Noticeably F.A.T. [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 11:10:58 AM  
Do Atoms Ever Touch?
Youtube P0TNJrTlbBQ


Let's ask a physics professor who pokes atoms with sticks as part of his job.
 
optikeye [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 11:13:13 AM  
IF they do...expect an earth shattering Kaboom
 
NuclearPenguins [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 11:58:15 AM  
Please stop greenlighting this tool.
 
Unsung_Hero
2023-01-27 12:02:44 PM  

NuclearPenguins: Please stop greenlighting this tool.


Seconded.
 
sid244
2023-01-27 12:02:52 PM  
NSFW due to language
Life Doesn't Make Sense! | Pete Holmes: Dirty Clean | HBO
Youtube OyDpS-GftCk
 
Thosw [BareFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 12:04:34 PM  
Blew my own mind once thinking about how a knife just inserts its atoms between the atoms of whatever it's cutting.
 
ColleenSezWhuut
2023-01-27 12:07:26 PM  

HugeMistake: Define "touch".


<sob> THE BAD KIND!
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 12:41:23 PM  

HugeMistake: Define "touch".


fair enough
 
covfefe [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 12:47:15 PM  
Genesis - Invisible Touch (Official Music Video)
Youtube jpmiZ7zsHXY
 
flamark [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 12:47:22 PM  
What is this? Another white power freak with a blog ...

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
Ivo Shandor [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 12:48:00 PM  
frinkiac.comView Full Size
 
jso2897
2023-01-27 12:56:04 PM  
We should ask Nobel Prize winning physicist George Santos.
 
LewDux [OhFark]
2023-01-27 12:58:41 PM  

flamark: What is this? Another white power freak with a blog ...

[Fark user image 850x566]


You can't spell 'Ethan Siegel' without 'Sieg Hail'
 
LrdPhoenix
2023-01-27 1:10:20 PM  

HugeMistake: Define "touch".


That's what I came here to write.
 
LrdPhoenix
2023-01-27 1:37:43 PM  

Noticeably F.A.T.: [Youtube-video https://www.youtube.com/embed/P0TNJrTlbBQ]

Let's ask a physics professor who pokes atoms with sticks as part of his job.


Brady gets too hung up on the whole "touch means you can't push them closer together" thing.

There's no two objects in the universe you can't push closer together.  Even the solid mass of pure neutrons in the heart of a neutron star will get even closer if you pile around 2.1 solar masses on top of 'em.  Real close.
 
Donald Terwiligar Spamme
2023-01-27 1:44:23 PM  
Maybe? Does bonding by molecular attraction count?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_block#Wringing
 
Concrete Donkey
2023-01-27 2:01:08 PM  
Awwwww look guys


Rethantard had someone read the hitchhickers guide to him for bed
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 3:05:57 PM  

Ivo Shandor: [frinkiac.com image 425x318]


It's funny because I'm working on a cannabis commercial and um.....

Nah, I don't really want to mention the product, so I decided to call it Schroedinger's Product. Just show the can and don't mention what's inside, because what is inside. I know that's not an accurate description of the problem, but I think people will get it.
 
chitownmike
2023-01-27 3:06:49 PM  

Thosw: Blew my own mind once thinking about how a knife just inserts its atoms between the atoms of whatever it's cutting.


Orange blotter, am I right?
 
Bennie Crabtree
2023-01-27 3:27:28 PM  
I guess this thread is full of Ethan Steigl haters, but I believe that the ahters are thinking too small. The entirety of Big Think is frustrating and asks all kinds of strawman questions that confuses the heck out of kids, non-science-y adults, and basically muddies all sorts of waters so it's hard to see the cool science below. Big Think is just a lot of shiatty writing with several random pictures thrown in and captioned, to fool us into believing we aren't reading a prolonged slideshow.
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 3:27:36 PM  

chitownmike: Thosw: Blew my own mind once thinking about how a knife just inserts its atoms between the atoms of whatever it's cutting.

Orange blotter, am I right?


a drop of liquid.
It really is all fractals you know.

upload.wikimedia.orgView Full Size
 
Mad_Radhu
2023-01-27 3:35:27 PM  
What happens when you touch yourself at night?

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
leeksfromchichis [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 3:45:16 PM  
When the atoms touch

upload.wikimedia.orgView Full Size


you'll know.
 
leeksfromchichis [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 3:46:59 PM  
Bennie Crabtree:

You actually click the links?
 
BlakCat
2023-01-27 3:48:07 PM  
don't ever touch me cat (vine)
Youtube 3rTbE5QWb74
 
scumm [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-27 3:57:28 PM  
if you get 2 metals clean & close enough, and perfectly matched, they will cold weld, losing track of whose atoms are whose.  but not your fingers, unless they are made of metal, in which case, you are an abomination, and should be destroyed.
 
Kuroshin
2023-01-27 3:59:46 PM  
When they do, the honesty's too much, so they stop.
 
BlakCat
2023-01-27 4:05:59 PM  

scumm: if you get 2 metals clean & close enough, and perfectly matched, they will cold weld, losing track of whose atoms are whose.  but not your fingers, unless they are made of metal, in which case, you are an abomination, and should be destroyed.


They do that in space.
 
leeksfromchichis [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 4:20:32 PM  

scumm: if you get 2 metals clean & close enough, and perfectly matched, they will cold weld, losing track of whose atoms are whose.  but not your fingers, unless they are made of metal, in which case, you are an abomination, and should be destroyed.


welding =\=  atoms touching

If the nucleus of a hydrogen atom was the size of a basketball, the electrons would be orbiting past the bleachers.
 
Sexy Jesus [recently expired TotalFark]
2023-01-27 5:32:04 PM  
Does this mean I was wrong for scolding my son when I caught him "touching" his twin sister in the back of the car just to aggravate her? Was he right and unjustly persecuted?
 
Wine Sipping Elitist [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 5:36:40 PM  
Nothing ever touches, everything is mostly empty, you and I are ugly bags of mostly water, and you get a new suit of skin every month.

The "words" you're reading right now are really just blinking lights. Even the stars above you are not where they appear to be since you only see them in the past.

Nothing is "real" so you might as be happy, whatever that means to you.

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
trvth [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 6:53:12 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
E_Henry_Thripshaws_Disease
2023-01-27 7:30:29 PM  
quit touching yourselves, pervs
 
eyeq360 [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 7:39:30 PM  

scumm: if you get 2 metals clean & close enough, and perfectly matched, they will cold weld, losing track of whose atoms are whose.  but not your fingers, unless they are made of metal, in which case, you are an abomination, and should be destroyed.


You trying to piss off the Necrons?
 
Noticeably F.A.T. [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 7:56:06 PM  

E_Henry_Thripshaws_Disease: quit touching yourselves, pervs


According to TFA, I'm not.
 
Russ1642
2023-01-27 8:25:19 PM  

HugeMistake: Define "touch".


Touching doesn't even have a definition at that scale.
 
Noticeably F.A.T. [TotalFark]
2023-01-27 8:28:01 PM  

Russ1642: HugeMistake: Define "touch".

Touching doesn't even have a definition at that scale.


*points at previously posted video*

It does have a definition, just maybe not an intuitive one. For certain the definition we'd use at our scale doesn't apply.
 
hegelsghost
2023-01-27 8:41:40 PM  
Spooky action at a distance!
 
Bennie Crabtree
2023-01-27 8:46:25 PM  

leeksfromchichis: You actually click the links?


I keep forgetting the Konami code, so I have to pay through level 1.
 
Unsung_Hero
2023-01-27 11:24:17 PM  

Russ1642: HugeMistake: Define "touch".

Touching doesn't even have a definition at that scale.


Reluctantly returned to a "Big Think" discussion to make this point.  Touching is a macroscopic concept.

At the scale of particles, well... those things aren't actually physical objects like your common sense incorrectly tells you they must be.

Lemme ask this:  Is the Moon 'touching' Earth because gravitational interaction with it causes our tides?  Because that's more or less what I expect is happening between what we define as particles.
 
mengelji [OhFark]
2023-01-28 4:16:28 AM  

scumm: if you get 2 metals clean & close enough, and perfectly matched, they will cold weld, losing track of whose atoms are whose.  but not your fingers, unless they are made of metal, in which case, you are an abomination, and should be destroyed.



That's nice, but so far, no one has satisfactorily explained how Johansen Blocks wring together but slide back apart later on.

/Have you ever really looked at your hands, man?  Whoahh
 
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