0

For example, a human can sense if their head or toe is touched and the distance between his head and toe is more than the size of one atom;

is that human one thing not larger than one atom, yet strangely he can sense where his body (that is longer than one atom,) is touched, or that human is strangely not one thing, or atom is not the limit of size?

(another question I have, is about the sensations of blue and red lights that may be related to 'hard problem of consciousness')

probably_someone
  • 35,459
Koorosh Heidarian
  • 1
  • 3
    Didn’t you already ask this question a day or two ago? I know there was an extremely similar question but it seems to have been deleted. – G. Smith May 11 '20 at 22:12
  • 1
    Your question would seem to be related to how the human nervous system functions. That's biology, not physics. – StephenG - Help Ukraine May 11 '20 at 22:21
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOLivyykLqk Particle man, is he a dot, or is he a speck? When he's under water does he get wet? – Jagerber48 May 11 '20 at 22:33
  • 1
    Atoms can stick together and make a larger object, a molecule. Atoms or molecules can stick together and from a solid object. These larger objects can have more complex behavior than a simple atom. It takes a lot of complexity to make a human, but a huge number of atoms stuck together in the right way can do it. It is something like nuts, bolts, and odd shaped pieces of metal just sit there. But put them together in just the right way, and you get a car. – mmesser314 May 12 '20 at 02:10
  • 2
    Originally posted as https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/551000. In the future, please don't repost closed questions; instead, you can edit them and have them reviewed for reopening. – David Z May 12 '20 at 20:25

1 Answers1

2

When your toe is touched, that means that the electron clouds in the atoms of some external object repel the electron clouds of the atoms in the top layer of the skin of your toe. In turn, the electron clouds of those atoms move inward, and repel the electron clouds of atoms further into your toe. This process repeats until a nerve cell is reached, which reacts to the motion of this huge number of atoms by adjusting the concentrations of sodium and potassium ions in various areas to generate an electrical pulse. This electrical pulse triggers the release of neurotransmitters which trigger the same process in a neighboring nerve cell, and this continues from nerve cell to nerve cell until it reaches the brain. The brain interprets the incoming signal as the sensation of touch.

Your brain is directly connected to the motion of your skin cells via the nervous system. You feel things that happen to atoms far away from the brain because you have nerves that are connected to the brain and extend to those atoms.

probably_someone
  • 35,459