Scale model of a hydrogen atom.

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on July 12, 2007 at 8:28 am


hydrogen.png

A hydrogen atom is only about a ten millionth of a millimeter in diameter, but the proton in the middle is a hundred thousand times smaller, and the electron whizzing around the outside is a thousand times smaller than THAT. The rest of the atom is empty. I tried to picture it, and I couldn’t. So I put together this page – and I still can’t picture it.

The electron in this model is only one pixel. You’ll have to scroll to the right to see it. Link -via Dump Trumpet


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COMMENT

12 comments to "Scale model of a hydrogen atom."

  1. Zak
    July 12th, 2007 at 10:31 am

    This boggles my brain. Great page!

  2. john
    July 12th, 2007 at 11:06 am

    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...

  3. tanner
    July 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

    What's more boggling to me is the "emptiness" between the proton and electron. Is the emptiness truly nothing? I can't seem to wrap my mind around space unoccupied by matter.

  4. SenorMysterioso
    July 12th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

    and yet I still have not mastered walking through walls

  5. IV
    July 12th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

    It's not "empty". It's filled with virtual pairs, various force mediators, neutrinos, etc.

  6. MadMolecule
    July 12th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

    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.

  7. Solo
    July 12th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

    It's not really empty. It's an electron cloud. It's not like that at a given moment the electron hangs there at a determined spot like a little bead.

    Quantum physics is impossible to wrap one's mind around, and this kind of demonstration is not helping.

    At that level of magnification, all you have is a probability of finding something. The electron will not follow a given path around the nucleus, it jumps around randomly.

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

  8. Anthony
    July 12th, 2007 at 6:09 pm

    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."

  9. beajerry
    July 13th, 2007 at 2:19 am

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

  10. Anthony
    July 13th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

    "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."

  11. Alex
    July 14th, 2007 at 1:56 am

    Yeah, electron cloud is actually so much weirder.

  12. Henk
    July 16th, 2007 at 11:11 am

    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.


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