From Wikipedia: Degeneracy Pressure
Freeman Dyson showed that the imperviousness of solid matter is due to quantum degeneracy pressure rather than electrostatic repulsion as had been previously assumed.
Could someone expand or explain regarding this Wikipedia excerpt as it is,
(like most of physics, unfortunately) , a complete surprise to me.
Two questions:
In simple terms, is it possible to show how Dyson demonstrated this?
Does it eliminate the role of electrostatic repulsion in ordinary life, such as standing on the floor, or just supplement the electrostatic repulsion effect?
EDIT as noted in the comment below by John1024 The same wikipedia article also states: "At commonly encountered densities, this [degeneracy] pressure is so low that it can be neglected." So, standing on the floor is still an electrostatic effect
but I would still be interested in the derivation and at what densities it applies, presumably neutron star levels.
As dmckee lists below, there are possible duplicates, but unfortunately I don't follow them as well as another year of studying physics would allow me too.
They don't seem to contain, on first looking at least, a derivation of Dyson's conclusion or the density at which one effects supersedes the other.
It's a fascinating area of physics, imo, so any answers (the simpler the better, although I have studied basic Degeneracy Pressure in neutron stars) to these questions would be greatly appreciated.
END EDIT