Page 50 - A Chain of Miracles

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should be smaller than the proton’s, in proportion to its smaller
size.
But what would have happened if the electric charge of pro-
ton and electron were not equal?
Every atom in the universe would have carried a positive
electric charge, because of their more massive protons. As a con-
sequence, all atoms would have repelled one another.
What if this were to happen now, with all the atoms in the
universe repelling one another?
The results would be extraordinary. Let’s begin with the
changes to your body that would take place. If such were to
occur, your arms and the hands that hold this book would dis-
integrate at once. Not only your hands and arms, but also your
legs, head, eyes, teeth—in short, every bit of your body would
just disintegrate into thin air. The room you are in, as well as the

world outside, would disappear—together with all the seas and
mountains and the planets of the solar system. They all would be
irretrievably lost. What we call the universe would be a chaos of
atoms repelling each other.
What is the imbalance between the electric charges of pro-
tons and electrons needed for such a disaster to take place? If the
difference were small as a percentage point, would this disaster
still happen, or is the critical limit more like only one thou-
sandth? In his book Symbiotic Universe, George Greenstein has

the following to say:
Small things like stones, people, and the like would fly apart if the
two charges differed by as little as one part in 100 billion. Larger
structures like the Earth and the Sun require for their existence a
yet more perfect balance of one part in a billion billion. 23

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