Why can't two masses take up the same space,at the same time???...tom science?

Answer 1

because of the same reason you cant walk through a wall. your atoms cant exist in the same space/time as the walls atoms because before that ever happened their masses would collide. Or, in keeping with the metaphor before you got into the wall your body would collide with the wall and keep the mass from existing in the same space/time.

Answer 2

According to quantam physics, it's possible for you to throw a ball at a wall and for all of the atoms in both the wall and the ball to line up such that the atoms of the ball pass solely through the empty space between the atoms of the wall, and the ball would then pass through the wall and out the other side. I'm not positive that this, say, is an example of two masses existing in the same space at the same time, but it sounds like it.

Slam your hand on a table. The atoms of your hand never physically touch the atoms of the table. There is an extreme, repulsive force between the atoms of the two masses at that close of a range, and it would take forces that you are not physically capable of generating to overcome it. I hope this is relevant, and that it helps - I probably shouldn't 'answer' questions this late at night.

Answer 3

At ordinary, everyday pressures, like when you push down on a table, it's electrostatic repulsion between the outer electrons in the atoms of the table and those in your hand that keep them apart. This works until you get pressures like those in a white dwarf star, in which a teaspoonful of matter weighs more than a tonne, and all the empty space between the electrons and the atomic nuclei has been squashed out. If you continue to increase pressurethe electrons and the protons in the nuclei merge, and you get a neutron star consisting of a mass of neutrons. Finally, if you increase the pressure so much that the entire mass of the Earth would occupy a volume of a few cubic cm., gravity takes over. Remember you'd have 6x 10^21 tonnes crammed into a tiny space and gravity increases as it all gets closer together. You'd have a gravitational field at the surface of your sphere of about 100 000 million g. Nothing could prevent it all collapsing into a black hole.

Answer 4

space/time is a touchy subject. because if you think about it space and time are the same thing. time cannot exist without something showing that time has passed. and space and cannot really be somewere if it were never able to be filled. so if time and space need to be working togeather to exist and they can only exist by working togeather. a 100% solid object cannot share space with another 100% solid object. the only way this would be possible is if there were 2 or more objects of 50% solidity or less combining and matching up each empty space with each particle. thus being a theory of advanced quantum physics.

Answer 5

Because the energy required for most particles of any matter to exist in the same place and have the exact same quantum characteristics would be infinite. However, Bosons, which are a unique subparticle of matter and energy, can occupy the same space at the same time.

Answer 6

Two masses CAN take up the same space if they were compressed into one. Such as an air compressor compressing air. Or a steel compresser,wood,glass etc.

Answer 7

Because if they did that they'd hafta become the same mass, and in effect it would be fusion.

Also, when fusion occurs, usually everything nearby is blown to smitereens.

Answer 8

Why not? You may end up with a surprise compound, or a different way of dealing with the universe.

Answer 9

With parallel universes, they could.

Answer 10

Then they bother each other tremendously.