If we’re made entirely of atoms and atoms never touch how do we feel different textures/fabrics

Question

If we’re made entirely of atoms and atoms never touch how do we feel different textures/fabrics

In: Physics

Answer 1

Well the confusion here comes at definitions, for example what exactly is to “touch something”? if you see what happens at the atomic level is that the electrons around the atoms repel each other and that force of repulsion is what you feel as “touching” something. so atoms do touch each other you just didn’t really knew what touching actually was.

The notion of things being a continuous solid is just an illusion caused by the scale at which we exist.