Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
I always thought that two particles of matter can not occupy the same space at the same time. Are you saying that this isn't true?
BOb
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I'm saying that the human body, like everything else in the universe, is made up of particles that come and go, food that becomes energy that builds new cells while old cells die and fall off, protons and neutrons and electrons that split off and are sometimes replaced by other protons and neutrons and electrons... in other words, you are constantly in flux, and never the same collection of particles from instant to instant. So the sub-atomic particles in your right hand at noon won't be the same as the sub-atomic particles in your right hand at midnight. This means that the "you" at one instant is not identical to the "you" at any other instant.
(This actually doesn't address the bit about two identical particles occupying the same place at the same time, because even if you shook hands with an identical you (which, as I just demonstrated, you can't), your particles would be NEXT TO each other, not occupying the same place at the same time... atomic forces would keep them apart, even through the tightest handshake, and nothing would happen.)
Now, if you could go back in time and your body, every sub-atomic particle of it, came to occupy the exact position as your past self at the same instant... well, I'd call a janitor...