(March 24, 2022 at 9:43 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Touch happens because out touch detectors send a signal to our brains. They are pressure activated, which ultimately means they are triggered by the repulsion of electrons between whatever you touch and the skin.
So, touch depends on the electromagnetic properties of whatever you touch.
So, a charged particle could be considered to be 'tangible' in the sense you ask for, but it would not be a 'solid' sphere. It would be more like a ball with vague edges that gradually thickens is you go in. This would be what an electron would 'feel like' if you could shrink that far (and you can't).
But a neutrino, which is electrically neutral (no charge) would feel like literally nothing. In fact, about 70 billion neutrinos go through every square centimeter of your skin every second with no effects.
Or you could talk about photons, which are literally particles of light. You might have a 'warm' feeling if the photon is not very energetic, to a fast burn if it is.
Also, there are other forces than electromagnetism. So, quarks also interact via the strong nuclear force. if you had 'touch' for the strong force (you don't), a quark would feel much 'harder' than the electrons above, but still with indefinite edges.
This said, the whole sense of touch is a macroscopic thing. It really doesn't make sense to even discuss it. The term 'tangible' is misleading at this level.
Tangibility is really more of a theoretical question, since we can’t actually shrink ourselves at all to find out, let alone to quantum levels.
I think essentially what I’m trying to grasp is… at the quantum level are particles that are responsible for matter, in and of themselves material in nature? Is, say, a proton an actual physical object? Or is it better understood as three quarks all more energy-like and fuzzy spinning around so fast that once you zoom out, we get the illusion of a material nature? (Again… not trying to delve into any pseudoscience here. Just trying to wrap my head around this.)
