Scale model of a hydrogen atom.

i know it’s demonstrating that you’re scrolling through empty space – but it’d help to have some reference markers so you can see how far you’ve scrolled…

and yet I still have not mastered walking through walls

John, the description at the left of the page says that if your screen is set to 72 pixels/inch, the page is eleven miles wide.

Yeah, Solo nailed it. The model is misleading and actually incorrect.

Kids are taught the Rutherford atomic model early on, because it’s easy to comprehend. A clear analogy to the earth and the moon can be drawn. But it’s wrong.

Later, students learn other atomic models such as Bohr’s, but they’re just models. They can accurately describe what happens to a point, but they’re not actually what’s happening by a long shot.

What’s actually going on is way more mind-boggling than “there’s a lot of space in an atom.”

“Perhaps a better model would have the electron zooming around like a crazy moon?”

No

“The mental image we have of nucleus = planet and electron = moon is very unfitting.”

What is the size of a a sub-atomic particle anyway?

At this scale, you can only talk about a particle’s wavelength, which is inversely proportional to its
mass. So, the electron should be huge, and the
nucleus small.

Hmm… there’s an idea for another model…

Empty space within an atom is irrelevant.