If you removed all the empty space from all atoms in all humans, every person on Earth would fit in a sugar cube
Atoms are almost entirely empty space. A typical atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty — the nucleus occupies a tiny fraction of the atom's total volume. If you compressed all the atoms in every human body by removing the empty space, leaving only the subatomic particles, all 8 billion humans would fit into a cube roughly 1cm on each side. The same calculation for the entire planet Earth produces a sphere about the size of a golf ball.
Solidity is the most direct and reliable experience of physical reality — things feel solid, they hold weight, they resist pressure. Finding that solid objects are almost entirely vacuum, and that all of humanity could fit in a sugar cube, makes matter feel genuinely strange.
“If you removed all the empty space from human atoms, every person alive could fit in a sugar cube. Every atom is 99.9999999999996% empty space. Solidity is mostly an illusion. ⬜ #OddlyHuman”