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Thomas comments on New Monthly Thread: Bragging - Less Wrong
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The mass difference between a hydrogen atom and a proton is very small. None of them has enough speed.
Heavier isotopes (deuterium and tritium (nuclei)) are even slower.
So are all helium isotopes, so are all other elements. Even slower than a single proton!
Okay?
What about the electrons? :-)
Electrons are faster than the escaping velocity is.
But they can't escape alone. Electromagnetism prevents that. Except for a negligible minority, maybe.
OK, but I thought that in this thought experiment you ignore electromagnetism. Otherwise you'd have to concede that a lot of particles do reach escape velocity, in a form of solar wind. :-)
You are right here on something important. Atoms couldn't be much, much smaller than they are. Otherwise not only the stars, but our planet had been evaporated, long ago.