Good day steemit! Are you all enjoying your levitation? You are sitting down? No no, you are actually not touching your chair. Welcome to my post about curious facts about ELECTRONS, allow me to take you on a little journey (that won't be too scary, I promise) into quantum world where things get weirder and weirder by the minute :)
So you have all learned about atoms in school, let me give you a little spoiler alert for the rest of this post, most of the things you learned is not entirely correct :) By saying correct, I mean not precise enough to be considered accurate.
image source
99.9 PERCENT OF THE ATOM'S VOLUME IS EMPTY SPACE
You know how the atom is made of the nucleus (that contains protons and neutrons) and the electrons orbiting it? The nucleus of an atom is extremely dense and contains almost all of the mass of the atom. Electrons have very little mass and orbit far away from the nucleus so 99.9% of an atom is empty space. There is a famous analogy with the sports arena, imagine that the atom was the size of an arena, the nucleus would be the size of a pea in the middle of it :)
ELECTRONS ARE TELEPORTING
That picture above, the famous one that you have all seen a million times is actually wrong. Electrons are not travelling, there are not "moving" at all, they are teleporting by disappearing in one place and appearing in another one. This is called a quantum leap, the electron "jumps" from one energy level to another. Oh and... Just to freak you out a bit more, when we are talking about an electron being in different places, we are talking about the probability of an electron to be found in different places. Let's look at another image, the probability of finding the electron at different energy levels in a hydrogen atom. That probability is represented by the colour. The lighter the colour the greater the chances that the electron would be found somewhere in that area.
electron in a hydrogen atom
YOU ARE LEVITATING RIGHT NOW
You have not touched anything in your life and you will not touch anything ever. You are levitating all the time.
All particles are attracted to those particles with an opposite charge and repelled from those similarly charged. Electrons are never in a direct contact with each other. When you are standing or sitting, the electrons in your body are repelling the electrons in the floor or in the chair, you are hovering above them, levitating if you prefer that term :)
why you can never actually touch anything
So how do you feel that you are touching stuff? The nerve cells in your body send signals to your brain that you are physically touching something when actually the sensation of touch is given by your electron's interaction with other electrons.
TINY LITTLE PARTICLES
People once believed molecules where the smallest, then they believed atom was the smallest. The word "atom" comes from Greek word "atomos", which means 'that which can't be split. Democritus was thinking that there must be a point where you could no longer cut something any smaller. Well... Now we know there are electrons and protons and neutrons, but did you know protons and neutrons are actually composed of even smaller particles? They are called quarks and gluons.
I hope you enjoyed this little educational journey, from more information please follow these links:
www.livescience.com
Jefferson lab
www.thoughtco.com
www.myinterestingfacts.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
futurism.com
www.thoughtco.com
This post is my entry for curious facts contest. The contest is held by @river-island and the point is to build a stronger community connections by presenting some valuable information to each other. If you have some interesting facts to share, visit curious-facts-contest-6 and share your information, and even if you don't want to participate in sharing, visit it anyway and learn some interesting stuff :)
)I have started the first HAPPINESS CONTEST. Are you happy, want to share your happiness and earn some SBD? Click on the picture and learn all about it!
>
Hmm, this is so interesting. I like things that make you think. Such as everyone’s reality is different than someone else’s. What are your thoughts on the idea that we are the ones that make our own reality? Such as circumstances in our lives?
Hm... I don’t want to show all my cards yet :) Interesting of you to get that vibe from me ;)
Did I read you incorrectly? ;)
Oh, no no. Not at all :)
Great, well I have been known to be mistaken a couple times in my life LOL .
I have ponder these same thoughts plenty of times... Like when you punch something, do you really make contact? Great post.
Thanks for reading it and commenting 💚
And keep your hands safe, Newton's third law is a bit** Don't punch stuff :)
Lol, thanks for the heads up.
First I was happy to join your happiness contest. Now I am happy that I bump into your interesting curious fact. I studied physical chemistry in my college and also a little topic on the quantum world. My lecturer did point out everything in the subject textbook is not 100% precise considering human are still studying about the quantum, that there is this world beyond our brain can comprehend.
And well oh well, today only I know about quarks and gluons.😜
Thank you sharing this. It is enlightening.
I am happy you found it interesting. Thank you for your lovely comment 💚
Oh It's always great to read your posts especially when the topic is science :) I just love that topic! This post reminded me of this song:
Symphony of Science is something special to me...
This video is absolutely the best thing I have seen all day! 💚
Check out Onward to the edge from Symphony of Science. It's my favorite ;)
Thank you for participating in Curious Facts Contes #6
Great entry! 😊 Really enjoying reading your posts. And I see you’ve started a running a contest as well. I will try to join later. Good luck.
Resteemd and Upvoted!
Well, thank you for hosting such a great contest again! 💚
#TIL
Thanks for this. And her was me thinking I knew...
:) Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I am glad you liked it.
This was quite interesting! I knew that we 'hovered' - and I always find that kind of cool, but you provided much more insight and knowledge than I have ever come across! Electrons moving with probability - that seems complicated and... scary. The world seems to be much more mechanical than based on chance.
Moreover, it's hard to grasp the concept of not touching. Okay, you do explain a bit about nerve cells and such - but what about when, let's a say, an object hits you. You skin the skin move, etc. Or when a knife slices through your finger. It feels illogical to think not concrete touch is happening! It's insane!
Hahahaha, yes, I know it seems insane but the electrons don't touch each other, that doesn't mean that they don't move. When you cut yourself your electrons and electrons in the knife are moving but no, they are not touching :)
They are not moving. They are disappearing in one place and appearing in another one. We can determine what is the probability to find them in one place or another. Welcome to quantum physics :D
That's it! Although they do not move, they still affect one another. How could I have not seen that!
To think Einstein once dismissed quantum mechanics by shrugging it off with "God does not play with dice".
Even the smartest person was proven wrong, that just shows how mind-bending quantum physics are.
Yes, they are mind-bending :) Thank you for stopping by 💚
Nice post, you are a woman of many talents. when I was reading this I could almost hear the voice of Neil Degrasse Tyson narrating. :)
I am a teleporting parts of my body constantly, how cool is that?
Very cool indeed :) Physics is just one of my many loves 💚
You are right
Congrats, dear! You are one of the winners from Curious Facts Contest #6
Prize is already in you wallet. Enjoy! :)
💚💚💚
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue # 57 (2/26/18)
The STEEM Engine is an initiative dedicated to promoting meaningful engagement across Steemit. Find out more about us and join us today!
I am honored once again. Thank you 💚💚💚