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phiwong t1_j29sreo wrote

Imagine a really large powerful set of magnets arranged in a row with all their alignments of the N pole pointing the same way. Now try to move another magnet of the same N pole towards the magnets. It's all "empty" space but the magnetic fields won't allow the other magnet through the first set of magnets.

The point is that "empty" is not really a good way to think of it. There are charges that cause an electric field (usually electrons) and whatever you think of "phasing" through also has charges. Those fields repel each other. Therefore the "phasing" won't work.

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breckenridgeback t1_j29tf9m wrote

In fact, this is only part of the story. Degeneracy pressure contributes pretty meaningfully to the "solidness" of solids, so insofar as the idea of "empty space" even makes sense, atoms are not "mostly empty".

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