Tony650 writes:
So, obviously, my initial reaction was wrong. This got me wondering, though, if such a thing is even possible. Not with atoms, but with the fundamental quanta of matter. That is, when dealing with a truly elementary particle with no smaller parts, would it be possible, even if only in principle, to "engrave" it, in any real sense?
Engraving is really just scraping off a few atoms. So it can't be done at any lower level. It is of very high concern in semi-conductor technology, where we are fast approaching this limit: around 30nm for CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductors). That's with an insulating layer down to a single nanometer, which would have a number of atoms you could count on a leper's hand.
Below which, from an engineering standpoint, matter starts acting funny, and I think engraving would lose all meaning.
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