We Talk Physics

If nothing touches, then what are we feeling when we “touch” something? What is the subatomic interaction that is occurring that gives us this illusion?

We first must understand that there is a lot of open space between the building blocks of matter. The atoms that create us are built from negatively charged subatomic particles called electrons, which orbit around a nucleus, composed of protons and neutrons. When atoms are close together, these electrons repel each other at a distance of 100 nano meters. Therefore, since everything is made up of atoms, there is always a minimum of 100 nano meter separation.

The reason we experience a touching sensation is due to the negative electron and positive proton’s charge. This interaction causes an electric field to be generated around objects. Which when it is being interacted with, stimulates a response for our neural signals to give the perception of feel. Though our electrons require their personal space, resulting in atoms never touching. We still exist due to our atoms constantly interacting, inherently holding matter together. Keeping us and everything we know close, but never too close...

If you have watched Marvel’s Ant-Man, I’m sure you are curious how the suit can manipulate space and matter to alter Ant-Man’s size. Also, I’m sure you’re curious to know if the physics behind it is even possible. Therefore, let us explore some of these concepts and implications.

Ant-Man’s suit uses theoretical “Pym” particles to shrink the space between matter, therefore adjusting the particles that make up his body. These Pym particles would have to carry a force that could change an electron to a muon, while keeping its electric charge constant. Leptons are currently categorized as the six subatomic particles that do not experience the strong force, including the electron. These particles vary in mass with the Muon being 200 times heavier than the Electron which is 0.5110 MeV/c^2. Therefore, the Pym particles could condense or expand a lot of “free space” by changing the  Leptons that make up his body. As he shrinks down smaller then a hydrogen atom, he reaches a size of less then 1.06*10^-35m, This means that the elementary particles occupying space have shrunk to the universal limit of 1.616255*10^-35m, known as Planck's constant. 

At this point, if Ant-Man were to get even smaller, he would be pushing space into another dimension. At the microscopic scale we experience reality in three dimensions, with the moment through time being our fourth. However, in the quantum world the universe behaves quiet differently and there is opportunity to interact with more dimensions. String theory predicts there to be ten or eleven dimensions, therefore making plenty of space for Ant-Man to manipulate his mass. Without these extra dimensions, Ant-Man would eventually meet a limit of how small he could go. 

           Have you ever looked up at the stars and realized that you are the by product of a stars life cycle? 

Well, you are, and it all started in a stellar nursery where a large accumulation of dust and gas slowly got forced together to form larger bodies of mass. These baby stars result in having a stronger gravitational force that pulls in more and more of its surroundings. If this process continues until resulting in the formation of a star with a minimum core density of 100 gm/cc, then hydrogen fusion will begin. 

This is what we call a main sequence star, and the stable balance between gravitational forces and nuclear fusion allows for these stars to exist naturally in the universe, such as our sun. However, as we know, nothing lasts forever and in approximately ten billion years our sun will die. At this time the gravitational force will exceed the outward nuclear fusion pressure as it runs out of its hydrogen fuel source. It will then shrink to the point where subatomic particles are forced to share more space than they like. This triggers the Pauli exclusion principle to take effect and the strong force between these particles repel so forcefully that the star expands outward. Once it has found an equilibrium with its now less dense core and larger radius, it is in its red giant stage. Here it may stay for a billion years where it slowly cools and contracts until it becomes a white dwarf. However, If we revert to when our star stopped turning hydrogen in helium and its core began to become denser. If there Is enough helium or heavy elements available, and the core reaches a density necessary to fuse these heavier elements, then the star can continue to burn bright. Continuing the cycle of burning one fuel source through fusion to a heavy element as the core gets denser and denser.