- #71
Haelfix
Science Advisor
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As I understand quantum mechanics, my answer would be that indeed it is possible for a book to tunnel through a table. Just that the odds of this happening are like 10^10^10^10^10^10^...^10^-(some large number). So astronomically small relative to the timescales of both the universe and myriad other events from occurring, that its essentially for all physical purposes zero.
When I was taking my competency exam in grad school, one of the past questions was to derive an order of magnitude estimate for a molecule of hydrogen sitting on a table to tunnel through a 1 fm graphene wall with some given density. The accepted answer was ridiculously tiny, but also a notoriously controversial question b/c depending on what effects you take into account (eg what potential wall do you want to ansatz), the answer changes by hundreds of orders of magnitude!
When I was taking my competency exam in grad school, one of the past questions was to derive an order of magnitude estimate for a molecule of hydrogen sitting on a table to tunnel through a 1 fm graphene wall with some given density. The accepted answer was ridiculously tiny, but also a notoriously controversial question b/c depending on what effects you take into account (eg what potential wall do you want to ansatz), the answer changes by hundreds of orders of magnitude!