When you put your thumb and index finger against each other, what is it you actually feel?

Q:

If you touch your fingers together, what exactly is touching? When you touch your thumb and your index finger together, you feel them touching, but on a microscopic level, is anything really touching? If you somehow looked at all the atoms that are closest to each other from each finger, how close would they be?

A:

What you feel when you touch your fingers together is the electric repulsion between the outer electrons of the atoms in one finger and those in the other finger.

So, you can actually never touch yourself, if “touching” is defined as atoms being right next to each other…

Who’s got more information on this for me? This article on worleyschool.net is pretty cool in all its 90s galore, but I’d love to know even more.

(via physicsforum.com)

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