Atoms consist of an extremely small, positively charged nucleus.

Vern Bender

3 months ago

But protons and neutrons are made of quarks that ARE point particles in the same sense the electron is. That’s why one can conclude that not 99%, but a honest 100% of the space is empty. Atoms consist of an extremely small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. Although typically the nucleus is less than one ten-thousandth the size of the atom, the nucleus contains more that 99.9% of the mass of the atom.

Atoms consist of an extremely small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. Although typically the nucleus is less than one ten-thousandth the size of the atom, the nucleus contains more that 99.9% of the mass of the atom.

The basic structure of an atom includes a tiny, relatively massive nucleus, containing at least one proton and usually one or more neutrons. Outside of the nucleus are energy levels (also called shells), which contain one or more electrons.

·n reality, atoms do not contain any empty space. Rather, they are filled completely with spread-out electrons, making the shrinking of atoms impossible.

Based on an examination of our DNA, any two human beings are 99.9 percent identical. The genetic differences between different groups of human beings are similarly minute. Still, we only have to look around to see an astonishing variety of individual differences in sizes, shapes, and facial features.

· Although, by volume, an atom is mostly empty space, dominated by the electron cloud, the dense atomic nucleus, responsible for only 1 part in 10^15 of an atom’s volume, contains ~99.95% of an atom’s mass.

Since atoms don’t have a solid surface, in one sense there’s nothing to “touch,” because there’s never a situation where one boundary meets another boundary. But “touch” also conveys a sense of up-close-and-personal influence, and atoms touch all the time.

,ow do we know they exist? Through chemical reactions, we can witness their effects. Through mathematical equations combined with indirect observations, we can calculate their various sizes. And finally, with the aid of new technologies such as the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope, atoms can now be seen.\

qq antum-theoretical answer to the question is that atoms are not 99.99% empty. In spite of what many descriptions in popular texts, and even in high school physics or chemistry textbooks, try to convey, they are, ultimately, misleading metaphors.

Yes, an electron does take up a finite, near-point-like amount of space, as does the nucleus, but only if you measure it. If you leave it alone, the electron is everywhere around the nucleus. An atom is filled with smeared out electrons, which don’t occupy a particular near-point-like amount of space, but exist as probability clouds, who.

Claimer before we launch into this: I am only a science fiction author, not an actual physicist. Everything I am about to write is my best understanding of what I have learned. A real expert in the field might read this and cringe at how wrong it is (though I hope otherwise). But with that all being said…on with the show.

The model of an atom we get in school looks something like this:A ball made of balls, with lots of smaller balls zooming around it, right? And maybe you heard somewhere that if ..