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Yes, Physics Says You Can Run Through a Wall
Theoretical physicist Professor Brian Greene joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning quantum physics questions. Is String Theory dead? Is our universe the only universe? What happens after the universe dies? Answers to these questions and many more await on Quantum Physics Support. #BrianGreene #Physics #StringTheory Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► Listen…
@Superherofan1621
August 5, 2026 at 2:01 pm
Some one turn me into the flash i wanna try it out
@RJunsupported
August 5, 2026 at 2:05 pm
shut up loser
@73koobee
August 5, 2026 at 2:06 pm
The wall isnt even there.
@ryanh3176
August 5, 2026 at 2:07 pm
Don’t give up.
@TurnOntheBrightLights.
August 5, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Ohhh yyyeeeaaahhhhh 🍹
@CraigButler-p4h
August 6, 2026 at 10:42 am
We never knew KoolAid guy was attempting quantum physics experiments. One of these centuries those bricks will go unscathed when he’s needed.
@Agha.Chronicles
August 5, 2026 at 2:22 pm
Quantum physics > Classical Physics
@irving_fisher
August 5, 2026 at 3:03 pm
Quantum Physics 🗿
Classical Physics 🗿
You 🤡
@gtseeyee
August 5, 2026 at 5:50 pm
@irving_fisher
Quantum power: Gifted physics👿👿😡👎
Pure physics: Classical effort🥶🥶🔥😎
@fjnagel5454
August 5, 2026 at 6:59 pm
Quantum Physics != Classical Physics
@Agha.Chronicles
August 5, 2026 at 7:42 pm
@irving_fisherlil bro tried to take Shi so hard 😭🙏 that he forgot the things he’s watching this on is because of quantum physics
You got some 💩in yo head lil bro clear that out
just using moai emoji doesn’t make you tuff 🥀💔😭
@hazratmuhazmat8831
August 5, 2026 at 2:22 pm
Wow, this has Buckaroo Banzi vibes.
@Upside_Frown
August 5, 2026 at 2:55 pm
This actually can’t be done on humans because our particles connect with a charge
@fjnagel5454
August 5, 2026 at 7:01 pm
I mean thats exactly the barriers they speak about. Passing through a wall is not a problem because the nucleus of atoms would bump into each other, they actually never do under normal circumstances. The problem would be rather the half life of any material used. Stuff will simply decay before anything happens, statistically
@chelidonsz
August 5, 2026 at 2:56 pm
So technically it could happen randomly at some point and everyone around would freak out or something
@tiredofliars
August 8, 2026 at 8:13 pm
IF you had enough time. BUT, every molecule in your body would need to perfectly sync with the barrier molecules which are not in sync. So, you would have to sync every particle in your body be exactly the opposite of the individual molecules in the wall. As he mentioned, it would take the amount of time that would be equal to MANY of the age of the current cosmos.
@alexandersomething
August 5, 2026 at 3:21 pm
He should’ve just said “Yes. Exactly 137 times. If you run in to a wall 136 times, on the next attempt you will pass right through but you have to be moving at top speed, head first. Good luck and Godspeed.”
@Saakk129
August 6, 2026 at 4:47 am
No
@boschbryceson4751
August 6, 2026 at 9:32 am
Your spirit will pass sure. But your body remains.
@zivzulander
August 6, 2026 at 10:12 pm
I did it! I made it to the other side!!!
Oh, look, another wall.
@TheLatinfresh
August 5, 2026 at 4:02 pm
So flash’s phasing is totally a thing
@hi_pd
August 8, 2026 at 10:44 am
Phasing is a thing. Flash’s phasing is still a fictional thing (for now).
@bmitch3020
August 5, 2026 at 4:14 pm
There’s a much more likely result than completely passing a human through a wall. It’s partially passing a human through a wall. Hopefully only losing a small part of your body and not going so far you get bisected.
@GgKkk-tx5sd
August 5, 2026 at 4:22 pm
You can just wait for yourself to fall through the floor
@andrewpaice728
August 8, 2026 at 2:20 pm
That is a great reframe NGL 😂
@Tobilikethis
August 5, 2026 at 4:52 pm
Better dont do it 😅
@Maizie-s6d
August 5, 2026 at 5:09 pm
He should’ve just said “Yes. Exactly 137 times. If you run in to a wall 136 times, on the next attempt you will pass right through but you have to be moving at top speed, head first. Good luck and Godspeed.” ……
@infn8loopmusic
August 5, 2026 at 5:47 pm
If you could vibrate exponentially faster than the wall you could just pass through it without harming it.
@ScottJPowers
August 5, 2026 at 9:54 pm
really? In case I need to remind you, matter is mostly empty space and, given the shape of molecules formed by atoms, on such a tiny scale, it’s like tossing balls slightly smaller than the holes at a chicken wire fence. most of the time they’ll hit the wire and bounce off but occasionally they’ll pass through. There is nothing spectacular or unusual about this. Why do you all feel the need to make science sound like magic? and no, there are no amount of times you can run into a while and then suddenly pass through it. Despite your claims, you can’t ever show an example of this actually happening. It’s always in the microscopic world we can’t see. Quantum Mechanics is a scam by people to lazy to do real science.
@BrianMDPhD
August 5, 2026 at 10:03 pm
Hold up. Is this to say that in a trillion upon trillion to one chance you’ll pass through a wall unscathed!? Or is there still a limitation of the physical world like a barrier of speed/energy?
@user-mz5sl7jb8q
August 5, 2026 at 11:47 pm
I feel like this doesn’t make sense. He’s talking about an experiment with one electron. The human body is made of many. Even if some manage to get through, the rest will not. It will never happen all at the same time. Unless he means given an infinite amount of time and even then the chances of falling through all at once is impossible. We will have partially fallen through countless times before then.
@zivzulander
August 7, 2026 at 9:12 am
It’s not “impossible” it’s just a very, very, very low probability, which is what he said. If you had an infinite amount of time then it would happen at some point in time. He made this pretty clear.
@MarSprite
August 5, 2026 at 11:53 pm
The problem is that every particle in you would need to make this passage simultaneously. You’re phenomenally more likely to have part of yourself pass through the barrier, while most of you does not.
@oonaghmarguerite6752
August 7, 2026 at 10:42 am
That is called a wreck, lol !
@lucinaembl2242
August 8, 2026 at 5:47 am
Help step-bro!
@johnpleung
August 6, 2026 at 3:44 am
RIP u/Do0ozy 1992 – 2026
@shoji...
August 6, 2026 at 10:58 am
😂🤣
@obelixer9751
August 6, 2026 at 6:00 am
A European or American wall?
@kaspinet
August 6, 2026 at 12:53 pm
Isn’t that what happened to Dr. Emelio Lizardo in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension?
@_Ape_
August 6, 2026 at 2:49 pm
Yeah, and this is something that they don’t tell you in the books. But in Harry Potter they do this at the train station every single day they can actually quantum tunnel on command
@zivzulander
August 7, 2026 at 9:10 am
I think it’s implied that it’s the effect of a semi-solid illusion (charm) rather than the quantum tunneling of the witch or wizard passing through it.
@wyzer9
August 7, 2026 at 1:22 am
No.
@GatoPatriarch
August 7, 2026 at 2:13 am
But if you run into a wall enough I think Newtonian physics would also predict you would go through the wall because the wall would break no?
I get that’s not what he’s asking it’s just a joke
@rickysmyth
August 8, 2026 at 5:14 am
So if I walked down an infinite corridor for an infinite amount of time I would fall through the floor? Hmm..
@drscience_xo
August 8, 2026 at 5:38 am
it happened to me after 7 tries
@joewalkinghome
August 8, 2026 at 10:11 am
If he runs into a wall quite often enough, he will eventually enter a state where he can pass through everything.
@Jackson_M5
August 8, 2026 at 10:42 am
So there’s a chance lol
@elkfeld
August 8, 2026 at 11:57 am
I can run through a wall of 1/8 inch drywall on the first try. I am Quantum Man.
@SiN.raN.home.
August 8, 2026 at 3:34 pm
Backrooms
@joshualisi3150
August 8, 2026 at 5:50 pm
So your saying there’s a chance 😏
@Rixporthesch4263
August 8, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Improbable but not impossible. Here’s hoping you don’t get incredibly bad luck.
@r0llinguphill483
August 8, 2026 at 9:28 pm
No they don’t do a version of that. This guy is a bad physicist for saying that. No credibility what so ever.
@SteVeL_318
August 8, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Great example of practical vs statistical impossibility.
@Onetwelvefourth
August 8, 2026 at 11:49 pm
Wrong
@Showmetheevidence-
August 9, 2026 at 2:04 am
His explanation is great. Except he ignores the fact you CAN’T simply “scale this up”
1 atome vs anything more complex is gigantically different
@Terolix
August 9, 2026 at 2:18 am
No-clipping is real then, this guy said so 🤷♂️
@akale2620
August 9, 2026 at 3:45 am
it gets exponentially worse.
the probability of a fraction of those particles going through is higher than the entirety of said multi particle system passing through the barrier.
now there are splotches of blood on both sides of the wall
@ripirffs
August 9, 2026 at 6:00 am
Bug in the simulation.
@mysund
August 9, 2026 at 7:36 am
Spreading honey on bread with a knife, no matter how careful you keep a distance between you grip on the knife, and the honey area of the knife, you will experience macroscopic tunneling, and get sticky fingers…
@WeskerAlice
August 9, 2026 at 11:33 am
So if it is possible. Did it happen at some point in humanity’s existence?
Someone somewhere must have fallen trough solid ground at least once.
@gregscott7304
August 9, 2026 at 5:34 pm
Is it just me or does it look like the void has been looking back at Dr. Greene?
@Михайло-д2п
August 9, 2026 at 6:41 pm
Tell this idiot that this experiment is being conducted by all the people on the planet just standing on it. No one has slipped into the planet. There is no magic, it is impossible.
@EduardQualls
August 10, 2026 at 12:52 am
Volvo already does this by putting its car through a moose.
@bentnosewp
August 10, 2026 at 12:59 am
Try telling that to Bill Django
@head-over-boots
August 10, 2026 at 4:04 am
So theoretically it’s more likely say half of you(r atoms) passes through a wall and half stays back and you’d be dead yeah?
@Lefhalas
August 10, 2026 at 4:11 am
It’s okay to say “I don’t know”
@WilliamAndrews0
August 10, 2026 at 10:47 am
The answer is no, then. The universe will die of heat-death before you tunnel through. The odds of a human passing through a wall are 1 in 10^10^35. That’s a number with 100000000000000000000000000000000000 digits. There is a MUCH higher chance that only the first 5-50% of your body go through and then you die because you have bricks in your organs.
@crazieeez
August 10, 2026 at 6:28 pm
Did not answer his question. Calculate to give him a number.
@concord5859
August 10, 2026 at 8:41 pm
While you do that, I presume particles of you are getting lodged or crossed over the barrier at a more likely rate… So, is this like a “Theseus” thing?
@shleemsupreme
August 11, 2026 at 3:57 am
That sounds so utterly nonsensical. By that logic people should fall through roofs regularly, since billions of people takes hundreds of steps on them everyday
@Simkets
August 11, 2026 at 6:19 am
So technically backrooms isn’t out of the question 💀
@1HPSmurf
August 11, 2026 at 9:52 am
If u go to station 9¾,u can pass through walls
@Darkuscities
August 11, 2026 at 10:09 am
They are the kids doing it in
@StudioComposer
August 11, 2026 at 11:36 am
There!… Bang goes the law of independence, probability notwithstanding 😂
@benjiman7259
August 11, 2026 at 4:22 pm
Someone did the math using the WKB approximation for your hand passing through a 1cm surface assuming that it was made up of ideal atoms of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, etc. They came up with 10^10^35 times.
@falsejaguar
August 11, 2026 at 5:37 pm
What is a barrier? Never heard of that.
@sillysausage4549
August 12, 2026 at 6:36 am
Any physical substance
@rishichandu23
August 11, 2026 at 7:41 pm
It’ll probably happen when the cameras aren’t on too
@bitday
August 12, 2026 at 12:43 am
If an infinite number of monkeys ran into and infinite number of typewriters…
@noirkiss3
August 12, 2026 at 4:56 am
Theoretically couldn’t you get it on your first try?
@ralph.aguinaldomd
August 12, 2026 at 5:43 am
If you smash yourself enough times thru a barrier, you would break the barrier and your own body multiple times before ever passing thru it. 😂
@feralharry7215
August 12, 2026 at 7:23 am
it might happen in like a googol to the power of googol years lol
@Psydvckthefirst
August 12, 2026 at 8:51 am
Wait so the probability is greater than 0?
@dasamont8274
August 12, 2026 at 9:46 am
You would genuinely break through the wall like you’re the Kool-Aid Man before you’d ever quantum tunnel through a wall
@Proton-h8z
August 12, 2026 at 9:56 am
What about paulis law of exclusion or something
@matteomasella4934
August 12, 2026 at 10:27 am
Photosynthesis is totally dependent on this happening 😊
@bobbygetsbanned6049
August 12, 2026 at 8:10 pm
Explain.
@thomasmartin3471
August 12, 2026 at 11:38 am
Only matter time someone falls through the earth
@Yaratoma
August 12, 2026 at 3:08 pm
How likely would an astroid going through the earth be? 🤔
@martinez_rosa
August 12, 2026 at 5:11 pm
I bet I could do it in less than 48 hours
@acedfirefist
August 12, 2026 at 7:45 pm
Bro just described falling into the Backrooms
@Ahlurglgr
August 12, 2026 at 8:01 pm
It’s literally texture clipping, we live in a simulation
@bobbygetsbanned6049
August 12, 2026 at 8:09 pm
So how many airsoft BBs I gotta fire at the wall before one passes through the wall guy!?
@davidcanterDC
August 12, 2026 at 11:09 pm
No.
@ninj0seph
August 13, 2026 at 12:51 am
The odds of it happening are actually shockingly high, anyone who’s played badminton can tell you first hand they’ve seen the shuttlecock quantum tunnel straight through their racket
@e-money5851
August 13, 2026 at 2:32 am
AI is more real than that happening but it’s a physicist, we gotta believe them no matter what!
@MrVioletfirefly
August 13, 2026 at 3:17 am
i think it is more probable that a small part of you might get stuck in the wall but for a whole body,..that many atoms at one time all go through would be exponential to exponential and would need an exponential age of the universe for that to maybe happen
@alexmcneel8931
August 13, 2026 at 8:11 pm
So, you’re saying I have a chance
@notpublic8961
August 14, 2026 at 1:49 pm
The real answer is no. If something takes exponentially more time than the age of our universe to happen, that’s just a fine way of saying it ain’t gonna happen.