system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is happening at the atomic level when I cut something?

This is something I have always been curious about: What is happening the atomic/particle level when I do something like cut a piece of paper with scissors or slice a big piece of meat in half with a butcher's knife? How do the atoms comprising the edge of cutting implement interact with the atoms of a substance such that it is separated?

As a kid I used to wonder if the armos were being cut apart when you do this, though I now understand the distances between individual atoms are remarkably vast. Still very curious what atomic (or even sub-atomic?!) processes are linked to the physical action of cutting, chopping or otherwise sundering a previously whole object.
gpt
Not much at the atomic or even molecular level chemically speaking. Physically a knife edge is pretty huge and even though it seems to cut, it's just smashing things out of the way. The sharper the knife, the thinner the edge, the less it has to smash to either side of the blade to make the 'cut'. 
Edit:to answer the question that got deleted..

You would have to build the tool out of subatomic particles and break the standard quantum model in order to get them to stick around to be useful. Based on our current understanding, 'cutting' atoms is a thought experiment.