Quote:
Originally Posted by Pie_Dictator
So you mean like magnetism? Then what if our hand is on the table? How do we feel it? How do we feel it, that is, if its just floating atop the table.
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It's called an electrostatic force; yeah, pretty similar to magnetism.
There's no direct physical contact at the atomic level, but the atoms are still all batting against eachother and exerting a force on eachother. Think about if you have two magnets, they can move eachother without touching eachother right? Same thing.
Only with electrons, their charges are much greater relative to their size. So they can affect eachother whilst being nowhere near eachother. That's the reason why they never get to touch eachother.
Click this link I posted below, it shows a scale model of a hydrogen atom (one proton with an orbiting electron), notice how much space there is between them? Everything you see, including your own body, is almost entirely empty space.
Hydrogen Atom Scale Model
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nictel
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You want to discuss this topic without actually knowing the principle behind the atom?! An atom is the smallest form of matter, all matter exists out of atoms.
So we have atoms, the most fundamental ‘indivisible’ form of matter, which combine to form molecules. Elements are specific atoms, with distinctive properties. So things like hydrogen, and oxygen are specific elements. The atoms of the these elements combine to form molecules of water. An atom is so small that a single drop of water contains more than a million million billion atoms.
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This is the 21st century man, atoms aren't fundamental particles. :p
Atoms are made up of leptons (electron), and baryons (proton, neutron) which are in turn made up of quarks.