system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If nothing ever really touches due to the empty space between atoms, how are we able to feel things?
gpt
Though things never directly "touch", doesn't mean they can't impose forces on one another. Things don't "touch" because atoms' electrons repel each other through the electromagnetic force (like the two N poles of two bar magnets). This repelling deforms your skin, and this movement/deformation is perceived by your sensory neurons as touch.