Bifalgorithm post

Did you know if we stacked every human on Earth and sucked all the empty space out of their atoms, all 8.3 billion of us will fit roughly into the size of this cube. This all happens because atoms are almost entirely empty space. If we scaled up a hydrogen atom to the size of a stadium, the nucleus at the centre would be about the size of a marble and the electron would just be whizzing somewhere in the stands. So if atoms are basically nothing, why can't the atoms in my hand just pass straight through objects? Because what I said before was a simplification. Atoms are quantum objects. So instead of looking like this, they really look more like this. They're surrounded by a negatively charged electron cloud. And when those clouds get pushed together, they resist overlapping, repelling like the same sides of a magnet. That repulsion is what stops you passing straight through objects and falling through the floor. But it has a scarier implication, because when you go to touch something, your atoms aren't really coming in contact with the atoms of another object. What we call touch is not the feeling of atoms themselves, but your body sensing the repulsion between atoms. So doesn't that mean that we've never truly touched anything in our life? Well, there's a problem. You see, atoms are quantum objects and they don't really have a clear boundary of where they start and end. This means that as you move away from the nucleus, the probability of finding the electron gets smaller and smaller and smaller, but it never truly reaches zero. So technically speaking, the atoms in your body have a tiny, tiny chance of having one of their electrons on the moon right now. So in a classical sense, no, you've never truly touched anything. But in a quantum sense, a true sense, you might be feeling the entire universe with your fingertips. Literally. Now get the f*** off you fine.

Did you know if we stacked every human on Earth and sucked all the empty space out of their atoms, all 8.3 billion of us will fit roughly into the size of this…

Ideas in this flowchart

  • Atoms and Human Perception
  • Atoms as Empty Space
  • Stacking Humans into a Cube
  • Structure of Atoms
  • Hydrogen Atom Analogy
  • Atoms as Quantum Objects
  • Electron Cloud and Repulsion
  • Concept of Touch
  • Touch as Electron Repulsion
  • Quantum Nature of Touch
  • Probability and Electron Location
  • Classical vs Quantum Touch
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Did you know if we stacked every human on Earth and sucked all the empty space out of their atoms, all 8.3 billion of us will fit roughly into the size of this cube. This all happens because atoms are almost entirely empty space. If we scaled up a hydrogen atom to the size of a stadium, the nucleus at the centre would be about the size of a marble and the electron would just be whizzing somewhere in the stands. So if atoms are basically nothing, why can't the atoms in my hand just pass straight through objects? Because what I said before was a simplification. Atoms are quantum objects. So instead of looking like this, they really look more like this. They're surrounded by a negatively charged electron cloud. And when those clouds get pushed together, they resist overlapping, repelling like the same sides of a magnet. That repulsion is what stops you passing straight through objects and falling through the floor. But it has a scarier implication, because when you go to touch something, your atoms aren't really coming in contact with the atoms of another object. What we call touch is not the feeling of atoms themselves, but your body sensing the repulsion between atoms. So doesn't that mean that we've never truly touched anything in our life? Well, there's a problem. You see, atoms are quantum objects and they don't really have a clear boundary of where they start and end. This means that as you move away from the nucleus, the probability of finding the electron gets smaller and smaller and smaller, but it never truly reaches zero. So technically speaking, the atoms in your body have a tiny, tiny chance of having one of their electrons on the moon right now. So in a classical sense, no, you've never truly touched anything. But in a quantum sense, a true sense, you might be feeling the entire universe with your fingertips. Literally. Now get the f*** off you fine.

C
Connor Fraser
8w

"Did you know if we stacked every human on Earth and sucked all the empty space out of their atoms"

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