If every object is made up of atoms and atoms are 99 percent empty space then why cantc our any of the body part just pass through the objects?
If every object is made up of atoms and atoms are 99 percent empty space then why cantc our any of the body part just pass through the objects?
Dear student
Let us deepily know what we mean by empty space. Because as it turns out, space is never truly empty. It’s actually full of a whole fistful of good stuff, including wave functions and invisible quantum fields.
You can think about the empty space in an atom as you might think about an electric fan with rotating blades. When the fan isn’t in motion, you can tell that a lot of what’s inside of that fan is empty space. You can safely stick your hand into the space between the blades and wiggle your fingers in the nothingness.
But when that fan is turned on it’s a different story. If you’re silly enough to shove your hand into that 'empty space', those blades will inevitably swing around and smack into it… relentlessly.
Technically electrons are point sources, which means they have no volume. But they do have something called a wave function occupying a nice chunk of the atom.
And because quantum mechanics likes to be weird and confusing, the volume-less electron is somehow simultaneously everywhere in that chunk of space.
The blades of the fan are akin to electrons zipping around the atom, occupying chunks of space with their wave functions. It’s a painful reminder that what might seem like empty space can feel pretty solid.
Dear student
Let us deepily know what we mean by empty space. Because as it turns out, space is never truly empty. It’s actually full of a whole fistful of good stuff, including wave functions and invisible quantum fields.
You can think about the empty space in an atom as you might think about an electric fan with rotating blades. When the fan isn’t in motion, you can tell that a lot of what’s inside of that fan is empty space. You can safely stick your hand into the space between the blades and wiggle your fingers in the nothingness.
But when that fan is turned on it’s a different story. If you’re silly enough to shove your hand into that 'empty space', those blades will inevitably swing around and smack into it… relentlessly.
Technically electrons are point sources, which means they have no volume. But they do have something called a wave function occupying a nice chunk of the atom.
And because quantum mechanics likes to be weird and confusing, the volume-less electron is somehow simultaneously everywhere in that chunk of space.
The blades of the fan are akin to electrons zipping around the atom, occupying chunks of space with their wave functions. It’s a painful reminder that what might seem like empty space can feel pretty solid.
