When you cut vegetables with a knife, the blade does not actually touch the vegetable! The atoms in the vegetable do not split, but are pushed apart. The knife and the vegetable have these electrons that are in the atoms. The knife electrons and the vegetable electrons push into each other. The material with the most electrons in a given spot is stronger. The knife’s design makes it so that there are lots of electrons in one given spot. When those two types of electrons go head to head, the electrons on the knife push the vegetable electrons aside and cut through it! In all of this, the two materials do not actually physically touch! It is just the forces of the electrons that are around the atoms!!