I was talking to someone the other day who explained to me that the laws of physics as we understand them are not necessarily ‘rules’ that things on a really tiny scale obey, and the calculations we use to talk about physics on a scale that’s relevant to humans are more like estimations of what will *most probably* happen as a result. This also means there’s no such thing as a perfect circle or a perfect sphere I think? Could someone ELI5?
In: Physics
Let me choose an example you are familiar with. On a one-meter, surface tension does not matter very much. Yet at the scale of 1mm, surface tension (with water) is dominant. So, bugs can walk on water, and you can get beautiful drops of water on pine needles.
The laws of physics aren’t different, but when calculating the force on an insect foot on a lake, surface tension is important compared to mg. Less so with a human foot.
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