String theorydescribes, matter and energy as being composed of tiny, wiggling strands of energy that look like strings. And the pitch of a string's vibration determines the nature of its effect.
~ Roy H. Williams.
(I, II ):
Matter is composed of atoms...
(III):
Atoms are made of protons, neutrons & electrons...
(IV):
Electrons can't be divided further, but protons & neutrons are each made of three even tinier particles called quarks...
(V):
Now it appears that quarks and electrons may not be particles at all but multi-dimensional entities called "branes," some of which manifest themselves as tiny loops of "string."
Nature rarely bestows gifts on scientists, however, without exacting a price, and the price, in this case, takes the form of additional complications.
Among other things, string theory requires the existence of up to seven dimensions in addition to the by now familiar four (height, width, length and time). It also requires the existence of an entirely new class of subatomic particles or "sparticles."
Moreover, there isn't just one string theory but five. Although scientists could rule out none of them, it seemed impossible that all of them could be right. (References:Time, December 31, 1999).
"If an apple was magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple." - Richard Feynman.
From the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus (around 460 B. S. ago) through now's a day, we have to ponder that what ordinary matter is made of? What is the basic unit of matter? What is it made of? What everything around us is made of? What we eat? What we see? What we touch? Etc.
Atoms are so small that is very difficult for the human mind to comprehend their size. The diameter of an atom range from about 0.1 to 0.5 nanometer (1 × 10-10 m to 5 × 10-10 m). Everything (matter) in the visible universe is made up of atoms, the amount of atoms is that matter is incredible.
Magnifying the ATOM
But how can we visualize that very small atom? What does it look like? To understand this problem, here are some simple demonstration:
Take a pile of paper clips (all of same size & color).
Divide the pile into two equal piles.
Divide each of the smaller piles into two equal piles.
Repeat step 3 until you are down to a pile containing only one paper clip. That one paper clip still does the job of a paper clip (i.e. hold loose papers together).
Now, take a pair of scissors & cut that one paper clip in half. Can half of the paper clip do the same job as the single paper clip?
If you do the same things with any element, you will reach an indivisible part has the same properties of the element, like the single paper clip. This indivisible part is called an 'ATOM'.
Make the structure of an atom easier to visualize by showing how small the nucleus is to the total size of an atom. According to Canada's National Laboratory for particle Physics, if the golf ball represents the nucleus, the first group of electron would be a kilometer away. The second group would be 4 - kilometer away, the third 9 - kilometer away & so on.
Use another examples to help illustrate the concept of visualize atom:
If an apple were enlarged to the size of the earth , its individual atoms would be the size of original apple.
Note: Mean Radius of earth = 6,371 kilometer (≈3,959 mi).
Scanning Tunneling microscope
Visualize an atom - compare between Earth & Apple
Imagine that the nucleus of an atom was the size of our sun. In that case the closest electron would be beyond Mars.
A single drop of water contains about 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (2*10^21 atoms) atoms of oxygen, and twice that many hydrogen atoms.
A typical human hair is about 1 million carbon - 12 atoms JUST IN WIDTH.
There are about 5 millions atoms in the full stop at the end of this sentence.
Protons are much larger than electrons. One proton is equivalent to 2000 electrons. The difference between them is equivalent to that between a human being & a peanut.
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space, Everything else is opinion." - Democritus.
A is for ATOM
Matter is the substance of the universe. Matter is anything that can be touched physically. It has mass, has the property of occupying space & the attributes of gravity & inertia. Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter. Which means that everything in the universe is made of ‘ATOM’.
Now let us discuss about 'ATOM':
The word ATOM is derived from the Greek word ‘atom’ which means indivisible. The Greeks concluded that matter could be broken down into particles too small to be seen. Something that cannot be divided further called ‘ATOM’.
The idea of the atom was first devised by Democritus in 530 B.C. He asked this question: “if we break a piece of matter in half, & then break in it half again, how many breaks will you have to make before you can break it no further?”
He concluded that: “it ended at some point, a smallest possible bit of matter.” He called these basic matter is an ‘ATOM’.
But there was no way to support his theory by observation or experiment.
At that time, another ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle believed that all things were composed of five elementary particles: Earth(Solid), Water(Liquid), Air(Gas), Fire(Plasma & Heat) & Aether(Stars & Planets). Which is not acceptable truth.
Early Scientists until 1800s, they began to collecting & analyzing information about the World, but they believed that these material were not fundamental but were made of other substances.
In the 1800s British physicist John Dalton( 1766 - 1884) was so sure: he had identified the most basic objects that he called them atoms. John Dalton came with his Atomic Theory as a result of his research into gas.
After these(Dalton's Atomic Theory), Scientists were able to break apart these ATOMS into smaller particles like - Electron, nucleus(Proton & Neutron).(See more details in another articles!)
Structure of ATOM(1)
Structure of ATOM(2)
Atoms are one of the most fundamental building block of matter. This fundamental piece of matter is called ATOM.
But Even more amazing is the fact that atoms themselves are not even fundamental particles, but are instead made up of even smaller bits of matter called 'Quarks'.
Atoms are the extremely small. About 99.999999999999% size of atom is empty space. Everything on earth (except energy) is made up of atoms. An atom which we & everything around us are made. An atom is a particle what ordinary matter is made of. Atoms are the basic building blocks of ordinary matter.It is also called basic unit of a chemical element. It cannot be broken up & undivided in any chemical reactions except for limited removal, transfer or exchange of certain electrons.
What is atom - basic concept
In nature there are 92 types of different atoms. All types of matter in nature are made by combination of the 92 different atoms.
Even more amazing is the fact that atoms themselves are not even fundamental particles, but are instead made up of even smaller bits of matter called 'Quarks'. Quarks are the basic fundamental elementary particles.
Atoms themselves are made up of three kind of smaller elementary particles called protons, neutrons & electrons. Protons & neutrons bind tightly together to create central atomic nucleus. The central atomic nucleus is dense, central core of an atom. Proton & neutron that make up nuclei of atom, consist 'Quarks'.
The central atomic nucleus is very tiny in size. The diameter of the nucleus of an atom (the proton & neutron in the center) is 10,000 times smaller than the total diameter of the atom. But very difficult to describe the size of atom because there is no any definite outer boundary of an atom (More detail in another article).The nucleus makes up nearly all the mass of an atom. The rest of the atom outside the nucleus is mostly empty space. The electrons whirl (revolved) through this space.
The proton is positively charged particles of 1.602*10^-19 coulomb. It has a mass = 1.675*10^-27 kilograms. Which is 1,837 times greater than that of an electron mass. Neutron is electrically neutral particles. It is also called charge less particle having a mass = 1.675*10^-27 kilograms.Which is 1,839 times greater than the size of electron mass.
The central nucleus is usually surrounded by cloud of electrons. Each electron is negatively charged. It has a mass = 9.10*10^-31 kilograms. Which are bound to the nucleus by an electromagnetic force. The electron is one of the most fundamental & most important of elementary particles.
The charge of proton is equal to the charge of electron but opposite to each other.
The atomic number of an atom is equal to the number of protons in each atom’s nucleus. Atoms contain an equal number of protons & electrons, balancing the electrical charge of the nucleus. So that every atom has an overall net charge is zero. In other words – the atom is said to be neutral in nature.
Yet modern scientists have divided the atom into even smaller subatomic particles with strange names & even stranger characteristics.
