A Physicist's Message to Long Distance Lovers

tigersinlondon:

Never mind that we are many miles apart.

Technically, if I were holding your hand right now, we would still not be touching.

The illusion of touch is electrostatic repulsion between the electrons of our hands, and in fact there is still distance between us.

Our current distance is merely a multiple of that.

If we compare it to the vastness of the universe, that distance tends to zero

And we are touching still.

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If we held hands whilst wearing gloves, are we still holding hands?

So if touch is when one party is touching the same object as the other,

Then we are still touching, because we are both on the same planet.

Earth, a solid mass, and technically we could follow the trail of atoms and find my body at one end and yours at the other.

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I am not touching your skin but if I touch my hand to a piece of paper when I write your letters,

And you touch that same paper when you receive it,

The time in between might be a few days but in comparison to the age of the universe, that time is nothing,

We are touching the same object at the same time.

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We have been touching this whole time.

Were I to touch your skin, we would be touching no more than we already have.

Take comfort.