If the atoms we are exchanging with the atmosphere as we walk or run could be seen would we look like a comet?

Answer 1

We exchange exhaled carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapor as we breathe while walking or running. On a very cold day you can see the condensed water vapor and judge whether that looks just like a comet. We also lose thousands of skin squams like flakes of skin (or dandruf?) and that it what a bloodhound can sniff up off the ground to follow the unigue scent of a human (fugative?). Great question.

Answer 2

Well, this is very difficult to answer, and I know it's a hypothetical question, but if we exchanged atoms with the atmosphere, we would be losing "our" properties and would not be "us" anymore. Who knows what we may be, an invisible form of ourselves or such, but regardless, and I am not a scientist or anything, but I would imagine we would not look like a comet, simply because the atom as much too small to be seen with the naked eye, and an abundance of atoms together is no longer an atom, it accumulate mass by joining with other atoms and become molecules and further on.

Considering the speed at which we (human) can run, say the maximum is 30 mph if it's a strong and fast spinter, we would still not look like a comet, just a blur. To look like a comet you'd have to be traveling at such a fast velocity, that you're literally torched up into a mass on fire at very fast speed, which leaves the trail of "light", the tail, behind - that's when you look like a comet.

Answer 3

Atoms cannot "mingle" with each other because the electrons in the outer shell have a negative charge. Since like charges repel each other you can never really touch anything on the atomic level. If you could, simply putting your hand on a table would cause your hand to mix with the atoms in the wood and they would become one object.