Think of gears in a clock. The atoms in the wheels never touch but the shape of the gear still transfers e energy from one wheel to the next. In simple terms the same happens with other materials when they are sufficiently close for them to grip each other.
I read a paper in college from the late 19th century when theories about electromagnetism were really taking off, about how maybe we should think of “matter” as spreading beyond its apparent boundaries, and maybe an object could be said to occupy any space where its influence was exerted (gravitational, electromagnetic, inertial). I wish I could remember the author’s name or the paper’s title.
I’m probably not explaining this very well…my basic point is that “touching” and “not touching” can’t preserve their ordinary meanings when you’re looking at the atomic level. How does any physical interaction work if atoms never touch? Atoms (and other objects too) don’t have to “touch” in order to interact. The earth and the moon are “touching” in some sense because they affect each other via their gravitational fields. A magnet “touches” a piece of iron as soon as they begin to pull on each other. Even two objects that are “touching” in the ordinary sense of the word can still be brought closer together, as when you compress a tennis ball with your hand. (You’re “touching” the ball when it sits on your palm, but you can touch it even more closely by squeezing and compressing it.)
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Think of gears in a clock. The atoms in the wheels never touch but the shape of the gear still transfers e energy from one wheel to the next. In simple terms the same happens with other materials when they are sufficiently close for them to grip each other.
Same way I can hit you, yet we never truly touch.
I read a paper in college from the late 19th century when theories about electromagnetism were really taking off, about how maybe we should think of “matter” as spreading beyond its apparent boundaries, and maybe an object could be said to occupy any space where its influence was exerted (gravitational, electromagnetic, inertial). I wish I could remember the author’s name or the paper’s title.
I’m probably not explaining this very well…my basic point is that “touching” and “not touching” can’t preserve their ordinary meanings when you’re looking at the atomic level. How does any physical interaction work if atoms never touch? Atoms (and other objects too) don’t have to “touch” in order to interact. The earth and the moon are “touching” in some sense because they affect each other via their gravitational fields. A magnet “touches” a piece of iron as soon as they begin to pull on each other. Even two objects that are “touching” in the ordinary sense of the word can still be brought closer together, as when you compress a tennis ball with your hand. (You’re “touching” the ball when it sits on your palm, but you can touch it even more closely by squeezing and compressing it.)