View Full Version : Can a particle go inside another particle?


John J. Bannan
08-06-07, 10:51 AM
Can two particles pass within each other like ghosts? Or, must they always bounce off each other.

(Q)
08-06-07, 11:23 AM
Fermions.

"The Pauli exclusion principle is a quantum mechanical principle formulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. This principle is significant, because it explains why matter occupies space exclusively for itself and does not allow other material objects to pass through it, while at the same time allowing light and radiation to pass. It states that no two identical fermions may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle

spidergoat
08-06-07, 11:25 AM
I don't think they even touch.

Cyperium
08-06-07, 06:11 PM
Can two particles pass within each other like ghosts? Or, must they always bounce off each other.The particles themselves are transcendent, they can pass through eachother.

The reason they bounce is because the force which hinders them to come too near eachother, while at the same time keeping them together, it's like a spring.

Klippymitch
08-06-07, 07:12 PM
I thought it was because light and the x-rays were so small they could fit through the space gaps in the mass.

draqon
08-06-07, 07:12 PM
Can two particles pass within each other like ghosts? Or, must they always bounce off each other.

neutrinos and Earth.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exploretheuniverse/kiosks/whatsnew/whatsNewImages/neutrino-news-2-22-2-1.gif

but than they do oscillate...is that bouncing? :bugeye:

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 09:26 AM
A neutrino can go through the Earth, but that doesn't mean the neutrino actually passes through another particle. To the neutrino, the Earth is extremely porous.

cosmictraveler
08-07-07, 01:03 PM
Light particles can reflect off of other light particles.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 01:12 PM
Does reflect mean "go through"?

draqon
08-07-07, 01:15 PM
A neutrino can go through the Earth, but that doesn't mean the neutrino actually passes through another particle. To the neutrino, the Earth is extremely porous.

no...but than what do you define as a particle to pass through?
I mean you must first define the elementary particle everything is made of...in order for this ghost to pass through it. Otherwise all these particles will be ghosts in between.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 01:21 PM
Good point. Let's assume the smallest particle going through the smallest particle.

draqon
08-07-07, 01:26 PM
Good point. Let's assume the smallest particle going through the smallest particle.

well what is the smallest particle?

Because strings are not particles.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 01:27 PM
I don't know. Sorry. Just a thought experiment.

draqon
08-07-07, 01:29 PM
I don't know. Sorry. Just a thought experiment.

I mean...I am even sure the particles of this ghost image...if such exists even goes around molecules and not through it.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 01:31 PM
Right. That's my point. Can it do through the proton or neutron?

draqon
08-07-07, 01:33 PM
Right. That's my point. Can it do through the proton or neutron?

well how would you test that?
I mean there is an antiparticle that goes through lepton for instance...but once it goes through it annihilates and energy is released.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 01:34 PM
Well, getting blown up colliding with a particle isn't going through the particle.

draqon
08-07-07, 01:36 PM
Well, getting blown up colliding with a particle isn't going through the particle.

exactly.
What I am saying is nothing can ever go through another particle unless it was an elementary particle of universe.

cosmictraveler
08-07-07, 02:11 PM
Does reflect mean "go through"?

Well, most of the light particles go through the other light particles but some are reflected.

John J. Bannan
08-07-07, 02:14 PM
A photon can go through another photon? Any support for that statement?

quadraphonics
08-07-07, 02:27 PM
Well, most of the light particles go through the other light particles but some are reflected.

No, they aren't. All of the photons pass right through one another. If they didn't, electromagnetic fields wouldn't be superposable, and Maxwell's Equations wouldn't be linear. You may be thinking of some kind of experiment wherein the photons interact with a medium, which then reflects some of the other photons, but it is certain that photons themselves do not interact with eachother.

devire
08-08-07, 01:33 AM
No, they aren't. All of the photons pass right through one another. If they didn't, electromagnetic fields wouldn't be superposable, and Maxwell's Equations wouldn't be linear. You may be thinking of some kind of experiment wherein the photons interact with a medium, which then reflects some of the other photons, but it is certain that photons themselves do not interact with eachother.

i thought photons were their own anti-particle. don't high energy photons turn into matter when they collide sometimes?

Pandaemoni
08-08-07, 08:47 AM
I believe the answer is that fermions cannot pass through one another (because of the Pauli Exclusion Principle), but that bosons can.