>When two physical surfaces make contact, we say they are ‘touching’ each other. This contact may make it appear that two different surfaces are actually touching, but in fact, no atoms of any one object can ever touch the atoms of another!

A man is leaning on a wall, which his jacket is ‘touching’. At least, it seems that way. But when you look very closely at the two surfaces ‘in contact’, and understand a little about what atoms are like, you discover that no jacket atoms are touching any wall atoms at all!

Here’s a simplified explanation of why this is so:
An atom could be described as a positively charged nucleus, surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The nuclear forces between these two types of objects is so strong that no earthly conditions can cause the electrons to merge with the nucleus, even though they are opposite in charge. There is always space between them.