Why We Think We Touch Things
Why We Think We Touch Things I’m sure some of you will wonder: “ If electron repulsion prevents us from ever truly touching anything, why do we perceive touch as a real thing?” The answer boils down to how our brains interpret the physical world. In this case, there are a number of factors at work. The nerve cells that make up our body send signals to our brain that tells us that we are physically touching something, when the sensation of touch is merely given to us by our electron’s interaction with – its repulsion from – the electromagnetic field permeating spacetime (the medium electron waves propagate through). Also note, various things play a role here in making collections of particles into tangible things. We have things such as chemical bonding and, of course, the four primary forces mentioned above. Chemical bonds allow electrons to “latch on” to imperfections within an object’s surface, creating friction . For those that h...