2007-01-16 01:32:18 · 9 answers · asked by kleopapas 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Objects are prevented from passing through each other by the electromagnetic repulsion between their electron shells. If you look at it closely enough, there is no physical contact per se, but for all practical intents they do touch.
2007-01-16 01:39:23 · answer #1 · answered by poorcocoboiboi 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Your question is really ill-defined. But my answer is a qualified yes. Usually, by touch, we mean that there is a normal force between two objects pushing them apart. This is a result of the electromagnetic (chemical) forces that give the objects their shape.
If you define touch as "occupying the same point in space", the answer is a qualified yes also, even quantum mechanically. Any particles can have wave functions that overlap, so you might (not for sure, but maybe) find them in the same place with a given measurement.
I wouldn't define touch as "occupying the same quantum states", but if you did, then only bosons (photons, helium atoms) are allowed to do that. Fermions (electrons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos, quarks, etc) can't. But even fermions can share spatial wave functions so long as they have different spin or color wave functions.
2007-01-16 03:23:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is more than the electrostatic repulsion. In order to anything to 'touch' something else, part of the 'things' must occupy the same quantum state. Now, this is forbidden for fermions. Unless you are refering to the exchange particles (bosons), I am afraid nothing touches everything else because it is forbidden by Fermi-Dirac statistics.
2007-01-16 02:27:21 · answer #3 · answered by Mawkish 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The idea of touching is a macrospic one. It refers to our everyday world. We all know what it means. Unfortunately when we go small intuitive things like that do not carry over in the same way. You have to say/define what you mean by touching rather more clearly.. That is why some of those answers look contradictory. That is why gebobs said what he did.
There are a lot of questions like that . . . . . . sorry. Its like saying 'Can you look at an atom' It depends what you mean by 'look'.
2007-01-16 08:52:28 · answer #4 · answered by Richard T 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, things physically touch. You can tell this because if you cant see a gap between two things (say the white and a coloured ball in snooker) the referee (not just any old guy with no discrimination - no no! - an expert at judging whether things are touching or not ) will look at the balls and probably wave his hands about a bit and _really_ _deeply_ _consider_the_situation_ and then say 'touching ball'.
So if someone in authority like that, someone you can deeply respect, says that two things are touching then you can be pretty sure that things really can touch one another.
Please accept my very best wishes for luck in the future - Mike
2007-01-16 01:53:55 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
No, things cannot touch. The uncertainty principle tells us that we cannot know exactly where a particle is and its motion at the same time. If two balls are "touching" then we know for sure the position of at least two particles - the point where they intersect - which is forbidden.
2007-01-16 03:41:56 · answer #6 · answered by Michael B 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
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2016-12-12 12:36:05 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Define "touch" on the atomic level.
2007-01-16 01:52:44 · answer #8 · answered by gebobs 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Things definitely touch each other.
2007-01-16 01:36:20 · answer #9 · answered by mark 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋