Topic: What is the "empty space" in an atom? (Read 2163 times)

To ultra-simplify. Most of the electron cloud is empty of a particle when the electron is a particle (when its being measured). But it would be changing locations so fast that the space isn't really empty. If you could blow a hydrogen atom up to a massive scale and then tried to poke the nucleus with your finger, it would be like trying to poke your finger past the blades of a nearly infinitely fast whirling fan.

It's where a galaxy fetus is being incubated

So beautiful!!!!

Vacuum.

Vacant.

Void.

No it doesn't really have. I've done my quick search.

I know about the quantum energy fluctuation as one of the recent noble prizes was given to a scientist who made a numerical simulation of it and how Quarks appears in the peaks of those fluctuation (of course it's quantum mechanics so it's statistical, the peak has the highest % the rest less...)  but first time hearing about this theory (or rather as an independant thing, because Quarks and other subparticals appearing and disapearing is what they mean by teleportation? hmm I'll read more about it)

It has but , try typing in youtube , this is complicated.

Google has no results for quantum energy.

If you never heard of this, you can  type in youtube quantum physics and Consciousness.

Could very well be dark matter.  Scientists believe dark matter exists (unexplained gravity in the universe) but no not where it comes from.

This is the first time that I've heard about this too.
The only thing that I have found is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_energy_teleportation

He is just trolling and what's quantum energy -.- ? also why conscious is related to humans in this case while everything even "empty space" if full of activity ?

How can one possibly think otherwise!?

You're saying the consciousness is the same as quantum energy?

It's some kind of energy right?

Perhaps conscious/quantum energy does fabricate our universe.

Trolling again, are we Dank?

Consciousness.

I'd very strongly recommend reading Lawrence Krauss' book "A Universe From Nothing". I'm part way through and the beginning alone is worth reading for a better understanding of what "empty" and "nothing" really means. Just remember that when things seem incomprehensible that means you are learning. The Universe doesn't exist for us to like the way it works, only for us to try and understand how it does.

It's more complicated than that, The Atom model does not resemble planetary model at all or rather it's more complicated than that , while the planetary model (Borh) explains very well the Energy Quanta (Plank)  it's a simplified model that doesn't represent reality It's like Newtonian Physics vs General relativity

Here is the progression of the atomic model

It's even more complex than that today with our current knowledge and new theories

You mean 2, 2, 6, 2, 6, 2, 10, 6?

right.  that's why it goes 2,8,8,16.  just like the sun and the universe

They are really quite different. Planets move in predictable, stable orbits around the sun, leaving lots of empty space between everything. Electrons move in probabalistic clouds filling all the space around the nucleus, leaving no empty space anywhere.

An electron cloud is technically infinitely large, but of course it's more conveniently defined out to some sigma cutoff, which results in some shape for the cloud in 3d space.

String theory, I'll let you look that up , but it really depends on what you qualify, by empty, and inside the atom there are physical huge empty space (vacum) on the long scale of time, and very short scale of time it isn't the case

I'm pretty sure than one of the last Noble prices in physics, was given to a scientist who made a numerical simulation of the empty space state inside an atome or something like that, I don't recall the details since I've read that in a while and they didn't mention the alghorithm nor the limite conditions that were used

The atom is like a solar system. The nucleus is the sun and the electrons is the planets.

These experiments, if I am thinking of the same ones you are, more properly explain that most of the atom is "not the nucleus", not that most of the atom is "empty space". Of course, they still teach the Bohr model in schools, so it is no surprise that people get confused even after taking "some chemistry".

this is an unfortunate consequence of meddling by popular culture. "Observe" here means some interaction ("bouncing" a particle off of it); consciousness is irrelevant, except of course in evaluating the data.

This "empty space" idea is a holdover from scattering experiments performed during the dawn of the 20th century. Most of the space in an atom is composed by the probability distribution of the electrons in the atom.

There are no empty spaces in atoms. There is the nucleus at the middle, and electrons surrounding the nucleus. It sounds like you are thinking of electrons as particles, that will lead you into misconceptions of atomic phenomena. The electrons form standing waves around the nucleus.

I believe too that is no such empty space. Before we believe that atom is the smallest particle until we discovered electrons and then quarks. I believe there is no end of it. There are always smaller things to discover as well as bigger things. Space is infinite, they call it universe but I call it multiverse. Space is just so vast that cannot see it all. Light is so slow, we will only discover this other verse once we discover a particle that moves a trillion times faster than light, but to discover this particle we must also need to detect/discover a particle a trillion times smaller than quarks.

Don't forget that it's just a model. Nobody actually observed the so called empty space directly.

The same holds true for the various other exotic particles that have been discovered. Question is if we can even imagine the ''true nature'' of such phenomena as these constitute our own existence and our ability to think about them.

ya.ya.yo!

The empty space in an atom is not filled with smaller atoms. That space is a "vacuum" in that there are no atoms in it ...but an atmospheric vacuum isn't the same thing at a subatomic scale as we experience at our scale. A hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty space.

Explained above in my initial reply^^, the Empty space is due to the different forces (there are 4) thats rules the world, ruling the subparticales interactions, Strong, Weak nuclear force, Electromagnetism and the weakest of all Gravity. To really simplify this (even if it is far from being an accurate representation)  look at gravity, look at the solar system for example, the solar system is filled with huge gaps , the gaps between planets orbits metorites ect ect, yet the solar system is a thing, the same can be said for galaxies, when you look at these megastructure, they are composed of stars dusts, planetes ect ect, and just to put things into perspective, the space between stars is so immense, the if you assimilate a star to a basketball, the next star (other basketball) would be hundreds if not thousands of kms away

Never Mind Sir I'll just give it a pass..! will study the subject more  and will comeback with some new clear info if i get.! just give me few more years... maybe between 1k-2k will be enough for me.. !

Try thinking of it backwards, that space is a super-dense liquid crystal under maximum pressure and that matter is a dynamic area of lower pressure. With the pressure of the entire universe pushing on it one can easily see how a little atom can have so much potential energy and yet be mostly "empty space".

I hope this makes some sense. Now where did I put my tin-foil hat...

I'd recommend watching the,new tv series "Cosmos" with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Really changed how I view the world in 5 episodes. (there are 7 out now)

You aren't making any sense at all. What are you trying to say? Please try writing in a correct and proper manner.

Hmm that I know but my reply was my answer to the question asked by OP, I don't know if i'm correct..!

One other interesting fact is an atom is made up of 90% " empty space " and everything in this universe is made up of " Atoms " You , Me, this computer screen, the keyboard everything is made up of " Atoms " and atoms are 90% "Empty Space" so the interesting thing is thing is that the computer screen you looking into is made up of 90% " empty space "  , now try to explain me this BS.

Higgs boson?
You could have found that easily using google.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

can anyone tell me what is god particle they refer too.? 

lol, no.

Empty space is at it says it's empty space a Vacuum if you may, no Atom just space (space is an entity) actually.


As for the empty space in an Atom, Atoms are them selfs composed of subatomic particals, Electron, Neutron and Protons, which are them self composed of Quarks, Bosons ect ect according to the standard model, the reference of empty space in atom, is the huge distance (in the atomic scale of course) between there particles in the normal state of matter.

To explain in simple terms, take the example of a sponge, a sponge has a certain volume right? but if you look at it you see that it is filled with holes with no plastic in them, if you compress the sponge to compensate for the holes in it you'll get the real quantity and volume of plastic in that state.

(if you understood don't read beyond this it might confuse you even more)

So to understand the huge amount of empty space inside an atom, we can look at exotic state of matter in the Univers, and lets take the example of the sponge again, to compress matter you need huge forces! an Example would Star cores where gravity applies such forces on matter and the energy from nuclear fusion counter that force, but what happens when there is no more fuel in the star for nuclear fusion, well gravity wins, and depending on the weight of the star the matter get compressed intel a force counter gravity, example a star like the Sun once it full is done, it core will compress to a white dwarf a white dwarf is about the size of earth yet it weighs the same as the sun (for reference the sun is millions of times bigger than earth in normal state) and the the force that prevent furthur compression is called the electron degeneracy, if the Star is heavier than the sun like 20 times the mass of the sun of the sun, the force Gravity goes beyond electron degeneracy pressure, and it manage to fuse Proton and Electrons to make neutrons, and you'll end up (with a huge bang called a supernova) and a Neutron star, to put into perspective a Neutron Star weighs from 1.5 to 3 times the Mass of the sun (if it goes beyond that it will become some else and the force that's stop it from going any further is neutron degeneracy pressure) with a diameter of a dozen of kms, to put into perspective, a spoon of neutron star matter is weighs the same as much as the Everest mountains Yup that's the amount of empty space you have in matter in normal state, and of course if the Star is heavier than 40 times than the Sun, you end up with the ultimate state of matter, (gravity wins) you end up with a stellar blackhole (and an even bigger bang a Hypernova) ....


As for empty space
According to Quantum Mechanics and new theories, there is no such thing as empty as elementary practicals of matter and antimatter appears and instantly disappears in space but that's beyond what you need to know for now.

Dark matter

I've taken a bit of chemistry in my life, but something that's always confused me has been the idea of empty space in an atom. I understand the layout of the atom and how its almost entirely "empty space". But when I think of "empty space" I think of air, which is obviously comprised of atoms. So is the empty space in an atom filled with smaller atoms? If I take it a step further, the truest "empty space" I know of is a vacuum. So is the empty space of an atom actually a vacuum?