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"kinetic energy equal to that of ... a 5-ounce (142 g) baseball traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph)"

Probably wouldn't notice a thing. You're mostly empty space (on a subatomic level), odds are it wouldn't hit anything, and would just release no more energy than getting hit by a baseball if it did. Sure it's a stunning amount of energy for such a small object, but not much on a human scale. Compare getting hit with a bullet: penetration is damaging only because of what it tears up in the process, when the energy involved (demonstrated by getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest) is little more than a solid kick. A "hole" of subatomic width doesn't do much damage.



The energy content is significant, but it would have to be both transferred and absorbed.

As you note, odds of it interacting with some bit of you are relatively low. I disagree with your baseball comparison, as the result of the collision would be a cascade of secondary particles. Each of which would likely have only a small chance of interacting with yet another bit of you before exiting your body.

The net result would be something like firing a cannonball (or bullet) at a series of bead curtains. Most of the time, the bullet would miss. Occasionally it might strike one or more beads. Those then would also mostly miss the other beads within the curtain, though some might strike and cause secondary effects. Most of the energy would simply transit the curtain system as a whole. Or maybe even at sheets of laced (punched-out) tissue paper. The target simply doesn't have the capability to absorb the energy of the particle.

A more accurate answer would require some subatomic particle modeling, past my pay grade.


Total energy is not the only factor in determining damage. The rapid movement of a bullet through flesh does extra damage due to the shockwave it creates.

Similarly, if you drop a hard drive on carpet it's probably okay, but if you drop it on concrete, you're likely to have damaged it and even deformed the case, even though in both cases the total energy to stop the drive is the same.




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