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enragedcactiyesterday at 7:49 PM3 repliesview on HN

99.8% of all matter by count is either hydrogen or helium, are atoms dimorphic?


Replies

brainwadyesterday at 8:48 PM

If you're a cosmologist ;) usually they talk of 3 elements though - H, He and "metal".

zahlmanyesterday at 10:38 PM

If it were possible for us to exist (and thus consider the question) in the absence of the other atoms, and if those other atoms overwhelmingly (somehow) had a number of nucleons between 1 and 2, then the analogy might plausibly make sense.

EA-3167yesterday at 7:53 PM

That’s a very fun way to think about it, but it’s far more effective in a semantic debate than a serious one. I also don’t for a minute believe that the goal here is some broader reform of how the world talks about statistical distributions.

I’d rather not have discussions in bad faith.

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