how repulsive (30/6/22)

a-side

the last day of June
the month that rhymes with moon,
and clearly July doesn’t……

b-side

did you know you can levitate?… aside, that is, from the act of falling when before you actually hit the ground you might be said to be levitating, at a push… indeed, when you sit on a chair, on anything, you don’t actually touch it, you instead float a tiny distance above… indeed, I know, but that’s crazy, yes it is, you are in actual fact suspended by the repulsion between atoms… yes, repulsion, we are in fact repulsive… you see, the atoms that make up matter, and thus, you and me, never touch, and the closer they get, the more repulsion (there is between the electrical charges on their component parts)… try bringing two magnets together, north to north, it won’t happen, they will continually repel… this is because this electromagnetic force is stronger than the force of gravity, and if you want fine details, around a billion, billion, billion, billion times stronger, which is not a number I like to ponder for too long for fear my brain will explode… hold a fridge magnet near a fridge until you feel it pulling, then let go, it’ll snap to the fridge instead of plummeting to the floor, overwhelming gravity… so for your next party-trick, sit on a chair and say, “voila!… levitation!”

© 2022 robert greig