When I was in 9th grade one of my friends proposed an idea to me that has been in my mind ever since, the idea that we may never be touching anything… never. Sounds bizarre right? But after listening to his reasoning it really did seem possible, not saying that I believe it. What if there was always a tiny layer of air between what we think were touching and our fingers or whatever part of your body is touching something. So I decided to dig into this topic and find out if there is any truth to this madness.
There is a type of physics, called quantum physics, which claims that we are never actually touching anything. It claims that there is a layer of atoms between our body parts and anything we touch that causes us to think we’re touching something. This article does a nice job of explaining what’s really going on with an article and a video because it really is a concept that is hard to understand. I recommend reading that article because obviously, I am not a scientist and I will let the scientist explain what is really going on.
I think that its believable to a certain extent. The theory itself seems totally possible like I said before, however I refuse to believe that I’m not touching this keyboard I’m using to type this blog post. Or that I’m not actually touching my comfortable pajama pants. Or even that I’m not “technically” sitting in this chair.
One of my cousins is actually a professor at West Point for Quantum Physics! He was a PSU undergrad and graduate student, and got his masters in Quantum Physics here. I agree that this is an extremely interesting concept, and is widely accepted. Use of the theory allows for understanding and precision in calculating how light moves, as well as matter, electrical currents, shapes of molecules, etc. This article from BBC does a great job of giving some background on the theory, as well as explaining how difficult it is to understand.