I remember someone here once saying that nothing actually touches nothing, because there's these little things (I can't remember what they're called) in everything that causes them to push away from one another and therefore things only "stick" together because of gravity.

Is this true? And if so, can someone answer for me how we get wet, or how diseases interact with us or how we digest food even if nothing touches? I tried google, but found nothing.

So basically, you want us to explain every single significant scientific advance uncovered in the last 200 years, thereby reinventing the way you view physical reality.

Yeah man, no problem.

Brek

~!

If you'd be so kind to at least point me toward some links or something.

Ow. My brain.

What are you, eight years old? No, I suppose not. I was taught this stuff when I was seven.

I'll make it simple as I can. Everything around you is made of atoms. Atoms have a core of protons and neutrons, and are circled by electrons.

Protons and electrons are magnetic. Because positive magnets repel positive, and negative repels negative, electrons will push each other away. Because electrons are on the outside, atoms will push each other away.

No need to elaborate too much on that, you'll just confuse the poor kid.

Yeah, I know I look like an idiot, Prometheus, but that's no thought of my own. I had a really shit home education where I was left to my own devices with this crap Christian education course (which would explain a lot of my resentment towards Christianity).

What I don't get is that if everything is made of atoms and atoms don't touch, then surely we don't touch anything and therefore can't interact with anything and then shouldn't catch things like the flu or be able to digest food. Of course, it appears as if we do touch stuff based on perception, so surely you can see where the confusion is coming from?...

Just because the atoms themselves don't technically physically touch, that doesn't stop them interacting with each other. Really really simply, the repulsion of the electron shells of the atoms will exert on a force on others, which is why a knife will cut butter, for example. On the very smallest scale, it pushes things out of the way. It can work the other way, too, things can bond to each other. They're not technically touching, but down at this level "touching" doesn't mean a whole lot anyway.

And I think you're way overestimating the distance by which we don't technically touch things. To all extents and purposes, we do touch things. We're talking scales of fractions of nanometres here, nothing you could possibly see or measure without ridiculously complex instruments. It's nothing you need trouble yourself over. To all intents and purposes, we do touch things, it's just that you're extending the common definition of 'physical contact' to a level it makes no sense to extend it to.

[This message has been edited by Mr.Happy (edited 04-02-2007).]

It's not gravity that holds the atoms together but a much stronger force called electromagnatism.

As for the touching thing, it doesn't really apply to things on this small a scale.

Nothing touching nothing doesn't make sense. I think they meant more, that the atoms that make up all things are not in direct physical contact with each other.

Yeah, just don't try and use it in court for rape charges...

"Your honor, I NEVER touched her. The atoms of MY body couldn't ever get close enough to actually touch her. I ask you throw this case out!"

Yeah..... Doesn't work too well.

Sorry for the assumption that you were a moron. We do get some kidiots here ask stupid stuff for their amusement.

Ignorant I can deal with. You can fix ignorant.

First off, I should mention that electrons don't exactly 'circle' the nucleus. They exist in what is known as an 'electron cloud'. Each electron pair has it's own area around the atom that only it exists in. (electrons pair up due to quantum mechanics, it's too complicated to go into right now) This is called an orbital. Within this orbital, the electron could be at any point at any given time. Some of these shapes are rather bizarre, pictures are better than words. http://www.orbitals.com/orb/orbtable.htm

And yet, despite all the wacky shapes and whatnot, for all intents and purposes, you can treat them like little balls. When atoms share orbitals they form molecules. Electrons shuttle from one atom to the other and back again, binding them together. All this frenetic activity keeps the atoms pushed apart, at least as far as the radius.

I'll cover these one at a time. Wetness is actualy the breaking of the surface tension of water. Remember how I said earlier that electrons and protons were magneticly charged? This comes into play here. Water has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. When they're bonded, the oxygen pulls the electrons from the hydrogen towards it. These electrons spend more time near the oxygen than away from it. The oxygen has a negative magnetic charge because of this, and the hydrogen is positive because the electron isn't countering the proton. When you get water together, they stick to each other because they are now tiny little magnets. That's why water beads. When water lands on your skin and doesn't roll off, that's because these tiny little magnets are sticking to atoms in your skin.

Diseases. That's tricky. Lets just say that they take chemicals away that you need, and let loose ones that react badly. That goes into biochemistry if you want to get more specific, but for all intents and purposes, things get pulled apart that shouldn't be.

Food digestion. Again, chemistry. All food is made primarily from hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Let's discount trace metals and chlorine from artificial sweeteners. Food chemicals contain a lot of energy. When carbon combines with oxygen, heat is released. Same when hydrogen combines with oxygen. It takes less energy for these atoms to be together than apart. Suffice it to say that the body takes advantage of this. Details are complex, messy, and beyond your current understanding.

Feel free to pester me if you have more questions, or want another dose of my halfassed teaching.

Prometheus, thanks for all the information. You've given me enough that I'll be able to research this on my own now, so I wont have to pester this forum with noob questions.