Why solid matter cannot pass through each other? Why, when I touch a glass, can't my hand pass through?

Question

What keeps my hand from not passin through a glass window, considering that both my hand and the window are both energy?

Answer 1

As Bradley S has pointed out matter had a degenerate state where it can no longer be "compressed". The electro-magnetic properties of ordinary matter makes objects "solid". The thing that makes a table a table, a glass a glass is due to the electro-magnetic properties of the material it is made of (glass is made so that glass bits stick to other glass bits and stay stuck when it cools).

Even though atoms are 99.99% empty the degenerate state of ordinary matter means that other atoms won't infringe into each other atom's space. This repulsion (pauli exclusion principle) is what keeps things separated from other things.

An interesting side note: Even though atoms and their repulsive forces are very small, they are still strong enough to make you not go through the floor you're standing on even though you have the WHOLE Earth trying to push you through the floor. But that Pauli exclusion principle is just too strong.

Answer 2

There are four fundamental forces in our known universe: strong and weak atomic, electro-magnetic, and gravity. Of the four, gravity is the weakest by orders of magnitude. The atomic forces operate only within the nuclei of the atoms.

But EM forces are relatively strong and extend out everywhere from the electrons surrounding the atoms. And they are strong forces, maybe not so much on an electron by electron basis, but there a billions and billions of them (I recall 10^19, maybe 10^16) in just a small bit of matter...like the pane of a window and your hand.

And there you have it...why your hand cannot pass through glass. The EM forces in your hand and the glass repel each other because they are like polarities. So when your hand touches the glass, the EM forces in the glass pushes back against the EM forces in your hand. And, you are right, both are energy, four kinds in fact. And it's the EM energy that keeps your hand from passing through the glass.

Brian Greene in "The Elegant Universe" does an easy reading, but complete exposition on why things don't pass through other things. Which reminds me, disregard the answer that claims things can tunnel; such things are at the quantum level, not at the macro level where your hand and the glass exist.

Answer 3

Solid matter might equate to an amount of energy via good old E=mc^2, but that doesn't mean they are the same thing.

When you touch something you are feeling the electrical repulsion between the electrons surrounding atoms in your finger and electrons in atoms in what you are touching. That force gets very strong when the atoms are close together.

Even though there's a lot of empty space inside an atom you can't get past the obstacle presented by the Coulomb repulsion of the electrons to work your way into that space.

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I wrote the above before seeing Bradley S's answer. I'd like a little more explanation on which electrons you are claiming are affected by the Pauli principle. It can't be between an electron from one atom and another from the other atom if I have the idea straight.

I understand that the electrons in one atom form the so called "cloud" around the nucleus because of the Pauli principle, but I still think the mechanism of the force your finger feels is the Coulomb repulsion.

I'll see if I can dig up that Science News article. Thanks for the citation! Found it --

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_edpik/ps_3.htm

Answer 4

Light doesn’t pass through solid matter intact and unaffected. Some is absorbed (converted to heat), some is reflected, some is scattered, and the remainder is transmitted. Exactly how all this happens requires a rather esoteric understanding of electromagnetic wave propagation as well as quantum mechanics. The bottom line is: light does interact with matter in complicated and fascinating ways. Not all “light” (defined as an electromagnetic wave) is visible, and some invisible light, such as infrared, will easily pass through solids that are opaque to visible light. Most plastics are as transparent to infrared as window glass is to visible light. On the far end, just outside the visible spectrum of light, is ultraviolet. Only a few materials are transparent to ultraviolet, but some glasses are, which is how “black” lights are made. The ultraviolet forms in an ordinary fluorescent lamp tube when an electrical discharge excites mercury vapor in the tube. For visible light applications, the ultraviolet is converted to visible light by a phosphorescent coating on the inside of the tube. For “black” light applications, the coating is not applied and the glass tube passes some of the ultraviolet light. At the very extremes of the electromagnetic spectrum we have both radio wave and x-rays passing relatively easily through most solid materials, metals being a strong exception. The explanation and mechanism is the same for each, but the details are different. But to directly answer your question, “How is this possible?” The Universe is complicated and some things do not have simple answers. The fact that you observe it means it is possible.

Answer 5

First I should say that this answer is probably going to be at a higher level than you're probably looking for, but truth requires me to give it.

Solid matter doesn't pass through each other because of a quantum mechanical principle known as pauli exclusion principle. This principle says that no two particles can occupy the same quantum state. Or, to put it more simply, you can't have 2 electrons in the same place with the same spin.

The consequence of this principle is that when two electrons push up against each other, as is the case when 2 solid objects touch, forces exist that prevents the electron configurations of the two adjacent atoms from getting tangled up in each other, thus keeping each solid distinct.

The usual explanation for this phenomena is that the electrons on the outside of atoms are electrically repelling each other. While this explanation has some truth to it (the electrons are repelling each other) it is not due to an electrical force. Rather, the repulsion comes from the quantum mechanical principle described above.

As a final note, it's worth mentioning that Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist at the institute for Advanced Study in Princteon, NJ was responsible for proving this effect.

Answer 6

First off, you are not energy. You are matter (matter can be converted to energy and vice versa). The atoms that make up your body and the window are mostly empty space, but it is the strong nuclear force that holds the nuclei of atoms together that also keeps your had from passing through the window.
There are cases in Quantum physics called tunneling where individual particles can materialize on the opposite side of a boundary, but these situations do not apply in the macro (visible) world.

Answer 7

Oh, it can, for a glass that you are holding, if you sqeeze it reall hard, you will brake it and hurt yourself. Do not do that. As for your window, depending on how solid and how fast one of the body touches the other, you can even press on it with enough energy to brake it.
So you see, your hand and the window is not energy but possess potential energy.
You brake the glass and get hurt.
This is the only way your hand can go trough glass.
You should not try this.

Answer 8

Wrong. it can and does happen, process is called tunneling, a phenomenon of the quantum world. I happens all the time though in transistors and other electronic devices.

Answer 9

All are energy but in certain forms