Quantum Tunneling: The Physics Of Walking Through Walls

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Imagine throwing a ball at a solid wall and watching it pass right through. This sounds like absolute magic, but in the subatonic world, it happens all the time. Welcome back to Cosmic Earth, where we explore the weirdest secrets of our universe. This bizarre phenomenon is called quantum tunneling at the quantum scale. Particles like electrons do not have a fixed position. Instead, they behave like fuzzy waves of probability.

[00:00:24]Physicists describe these particles using something called a wave function.

[00:00:28]This wave represents all the possible places a particle could exist at any moment. When a particle hits a barrier, its wave does not instantly stop. A tiny part of the wave actually bleeds through to the other side. This means there is a small but real chance the particle will simply appear on the far side. It literally slips through the barrier without breaking it. Here is the cool part. Because our sun actually relies on this trick to shine inside the sun, hydrogen atoms want to fuse together to create helium. However, their positive charges push them apart with immense force. The core of the sun is extremely hot, but it is not quite hot enough to overcome this push. Without quantum tunneling, nuclear fusion would never happen. Tunneling allows hydrogen protons to bypass the energy barrier and fuse. This fusion process is what generates the sunlight warming our planet right now. So, without this quantum glitch, our sun would remain dark. Life on Earth would not even exist. But this is not just some theoretical space physics. We actually use quantum tunneling in our daily lives. Your smartphone and solid state drives rely on it to store data. Inside your flash memory, electrons are forced through insulating barriers to write information. They tunnel through the barriers to represent the ones and zeros of digital files. Without this, modern computing would look completely different. Scientists also use this effect in scanning tunneling microscopes. These advanced devices measure how many electrons tunnel between a sharp needle and a surface.

[00:01:54]This allows us to map individual atoms with incredible precision. So, could a human ever walk through a solid brick wall? In physics, the probability is not zero, but it is incredibly close to it.

[00:02:05]You would have to wait longer than the age of the universe for it to happen once. The quantum world is full of wild surprises. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and share this video with your friends. Tell us in the comments what cosmic mystery we should explore