Reply #3: That pocket watch question was put to me by a nun

[Speck Tater]

in my catholic school when I was in fourth grade.

I told her the analogy was bogus. Physcial laws being what they are, the correct question is, if I put a bunch of magnets in a box and shake it up when I open the box will some of the magnets be stuck together?

There are no forces acting between gears of a pocket watch to draw them toegther in the right way, but their ARE forces acting between atoms that cause them to form particular molecules.

Of course such insolence got my knuckles rapped with a ruler again.

Like the time the nun told me "You can't add apples and oranges."
"Sure you can," I replied.
"Then what's 3 apples plus 2 oranges," she asked me smugly.
"Five pieces of fruit," I replied.
WHACK!
Back into the coat closet I went.