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What Actually Happens When Two Atoms Touch
What actually happens when two atoms touch? When you press your hand against a table, it feels like two solid objects are making direct contact. But at the atomic level, reality is far stranger than it appears.
Atoms are mostly empty space, surrounded by clouds of electrons. So if atoms are mostly empty, why can't your hand pass straight through a table? And what actually stops two atoms from occupying the same space?
The answer involves electromagnetic forces and one of the strangest principles in quantum mechanics: the Pauli exclusion principle. Electrons resist being forced into identical…
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