Friday, 25 May 2012
Can't touch this!?
What if I told you that you've never touched anything before and you never will?!. You'd probably think that I'm mad, yes.
An atom is so small and so empty. An atom is 99.9999% empty space. So then why don't two atoms pass through each other? If they're empty space it should be easy? Right?
My hand should pass through my other hand or the pen I hold. No!
The ELECTRONS in every atom are NEGATIVELY charged, meaning they REPEL each other. In fact the closest one electron can get to the other is a distance of 10-8 cm!! This means that the electrons in your feet and being repelled by the electrons of the Earths surface! That's why you don't slide through the Earth like a knife through butter. The point is you can't touch anything due to the repulsion of electrons. Be thankful, without electron repulsion nothing would "be" stable.
Thanks. :-) XX
This isn't to scale but it will convey what I'm talking about:
An atom is so small and so empty. An atom is 99.9999% empty space. So then why don't two atoms pass through each other? If they're empty space it should be easy? Right?
My hand should pass through my other hand or the pen I hold. No!
The ELECTRONS in every atom are NEGATIVELY charged, meaning they REPEL each other. In fact the closest one electron can get to the other is a distance of 10-8 cm!! This means that the electrons in your feet and being repelled by the electrons of the Earths surface! That's why you don't slide through the Earth like a knife through butter. The point is you can't touch anything due to the repulsion of electrons. Be thankful, without electron repulsion nothing would "be" stable.
Thanks. :-) XX
This isn't to scale but it will convey what I'm talking about:
I drew this image in PAINT - sorry if the quality is lacking but you get the jist of what I'm talking about. X
Can you feel the heat?!
Wouldn't it be great if you owned a telescope that was so powerful you could zoom right in to look at atoms and molecules. You would be able to see the atoms and molecules "jiggling" about. This "jiggling" motion of the atoms is HEAT. If you rub your hands together, they got warm. Keep rubbing them and they get even hotter. That's is because the rubbing motion EXCITES the atoms in your hands, causing electrons to "jump" to a higher energy orbital, only to fall back down and release a PHOTON! PHOTONS are HEAT as well as LIGHT. The heat released by you is INFRA-RED - and that's why you can't SEE it.
Temperature is fundamentally just a measure of how FAST the atoms are JIGGLING.
Temperature is fundamentally just a measure of how FAST the atoms are JIGGLING.
Magnets?
The electrons that whizz around ATOMS don't just create electricity. They are responsible for the mysterious force of MAGNETISM.
Whenever an electron moves, it creates a magnetic field around it just like the field around a bar magnet. Every atom has electrons, so therefore every atom is magnetic. Or is it?
Normally the atomic magnets in objects I.E a table are jumbled up and have no arrangement, this means that the magnetic fields cancel each other out - there is NO NORTH and SOUTH magnetic poles. However, in some materials, such as IRON, the magnetic fields of atoms can line up together. Then the whole piece of IRON acts as a single magnet.
Magnets are surrounded by something called a FIELD OF FORCE. It's INVISIBLE! But you can see it by scattering iron filings on a piece of paper and placing a magnet on top. The iron filings jiggle about until they spread themselves as EVENLY as possible within the magnetic field. They particularly cluster around the NORTH and SOUTH poles, where the magnetic force is the most strongest.
Why is Earth magnetic?
Earth is a giant magnet and our planet has a liquid outer-core that is largely composed of IRON. However, the IRON in our outer-core CAN'T be magnetic as iron LOOSES its magnetic abilities at 760 degrees Celsius and our inner-core is roughly 5,000 degrees Celsius! One possibility, and I personally think this IS reason, is that our Earths magnetic field is generated by the swirling electric currents within the outer-core which are in-turn caused by our planets rotation about its axis.
Whenever an electron moves, it creates a magnetic field around it just like the field around a bar magnet. Every atom has electrons, so therefore every atom is magnetic. Or is it?
Normally the atomic magnets in objects I.E a table are jumbled up and have no arrangement, this means that the magnetic fields cancel each other out - there is NO NORTH and SOUTH magnetic poles. However, in some materials, such as IRON, the magnetic fields of atoms can line up together. Then the whole piece of IRON acts as a single magnet.
Magnets are surrounded by something called a FIELD OF FORCE. It's INVISIBLE! But you can see it by scattering iron filings on a piece of paper and placing a magnet on top. The iron filings jiggle about until they spread themselves as EVENLY as possible within the magnetic field. They particularly cluster around the NORTH and SOUTH poles, where the magnetic force is the most strongest.
Why is Earth magnetic?
Earth is a giant magnet and our planet has a liquid outer-core that is largely composed of IRON. However, the IRON in our outer-core CAN'T be magnetic as iron LOOSES its magnetic abilities at 760 degrees Celsius and our inner-core is roughly 5,000 degrees Celsius! One possibility, and I personally think this IS reason, is that our Earths magnetic field is generated by the swirling electric currents within the outer-core which are in-turn caused by our planets rotation about its axis.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)