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xkcd #3027: Exclusion Principle (xkcd.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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Fermions are weird about each other in a standoffish way. Integer-spin particles are weird about each other in a 'stand uncomfortably close while talking' kind of way.

https://explainxkcd.com/3027/

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[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 19 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Not that I know much about this, but the Pauli principal always struck me as an observation rather than anything like an explanation. As an explanation it's extremely unsatisfying. "Why won't electrons occupy the same space?" "Well.. because of the Pauli principal". No.. that's not the reason, that's just restating what we observe. Glad to see physicists find it weird too (as is suggested in the comic)

[–] Zidane 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I gotta ask, what's with the three spaces between sentences?

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 3 points 3 weeks ago

Google keyboard weirdness. Maybe because I'm of an age where you put two spaces after a full stop. But then the keyboard is automatically adding one to be "helpful" because maybe people don't do that themselves anymore?

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