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The probability thing is misleading though, it's really all about energy. Matter is just highly concentrated energy and just because the nucleus happens to be
by aeternum 3y ago
The probability thing is misleading though, it's really all about energy. Matter is just highly concentrated energy and just because the nucleus happens to be much more concentrated energy, does that make the energy of the electron cloud non-existent?
As a thought experiment: If you have a peach, would you declare the fleshy part non-existent once the pit achieves a certain mass density?
- imtringued 3y agoYour thought experiment isn't the same scenario. The actual scenario is this: "If you have a peach, would you declare the fleshy part non-existent if it had a certain probability of reallocating itself to a single spot once the pit achieves a certain mass density and if you touch it, there is only a small probability that you can even feel that the flesh is there?"
- aeternum 3y agoElectrons never reallocate themselves to a single spot. There's no evidence that collapse actually happens, that's just one weird interpretation (Copenhagen). The entire electron cloud produces an electro-repulsive force that is very real. That is what you feel, there's no small probability about it. This idea that there's some small probability that you hand will go straight through the table is ridiculous. When you touch a peach, some of your electrons/atoms actually do become part of the peach and vice-versa. If we somehow turned up the tunneling probability, your hand would not go through things, it would simply dissolve into things more readily.