Why do atoms look like little solar systems? does this mean anything?
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George is right, they really dont resemble the solar system at all, but the Bohr model (the one that looks like the solar system) is the one you see most often still...i guess old habits die hard.
This is a better representation of how it actually looks.
http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/physi...
Its the cloud model, and basically the electron can be at any place in the correct electron shell around the nucleus as determined by the energy. This model takes into account uncertainty and is a better approximation of how all this really works on the quantum level...
Edit: just found a good orbital table...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/atomic_orbi...
not really solar system like...
Phillip: You can draw that conclusion with a 2p orbital only, and thats a stretch. Try it with any other...4f? 5d? no way...
Why? Theoretically speaking, it has to do with the structure and make-up of all and everything around us. So, yes--it does mean something. It could mean that we are a dust particle in an atom, ourselves.
Hmmmm...Similar design in small things as in big things? Order in the supposedly chaotic universe? Hmmmm.This should be an easy one for you...
atoms look like solar systems also they don't
The distance between electron and the nucleus is so huge compared to the electrons own radius. It cant be compared to the size of the Earth and it's distance from the Sun.
What you might also want to say is why are solar systems like atoms? Because they work the same way pulling each other yet there is an outward thrust to keep the balance
it couldn't mean anything IMO
The microcosm mirrors the macrocosm, and vice versa.
The same principles apply, but on different scales.
Definitely order/design but mainly in the rules of physics.
They dont.
No-one has actually seen atoms. We only deduce their size and shape from complex analysis.
In the simplest of theories, atoms have a central nucleus of Protons (and except for Hydrogen, neutrons) with electrons orbiting around them in spheres (not in a plane, like the solar system).
This model does not adequately explain most of the properties of atoms and their combinations - but is a good starting point (if but for the fact that the model is "wrong")
Orbitals are a significant improvement to the model of the atom; but are far more complex.
Well, they don't, actually. But the MODELS we use to depict atoms do, somewhat at least, and there's a reason for it - just as a solar system is generally a collection of low-mass objects in a gravitational freefall about a high-mass object, so too are low-mass electrons in an electrostatic orbit about a high-mass nucleus. In other worlds, the reason is that both are results of one of the fundamental forces, both attractive. Since the forces have different scales, so too should their manifestations, eh?
Keep in mind, though, electrons are not very much like planets; electrons make up more of a cloud of energy than particles of mass.
Atoms look like little solar system means that the Sun is analogous to the nucleus and the electrons revolving around nucleus are analogous to the planets revolving around the Sun in definite orbits.
The above model of an atom is know as the Bohr Model which is now replaced by the Quantum mechanical model of an atom.
The Quantum Mechanical model of an atom denies that the electrons revolve in definite orbits as in case of the planets.
( All the 9 planets revolve around the Sun in specific orbits).
According to this latest model electrons do not revolve around the nucleus in specific orbits. The Quantum mechanical model talks of Probability of electrons which you will learn in higher classes.
If you go smaller than the quantum it's the same as going larger than the cosmos.
They do not. The solar system model is more than 80 years out of date. It is just used by artists who know nothing of the reality to illustrate atoms. Here is more information -
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~kaufmanb/a%20o...
perhaps God used the same model twice.
No they don't.
The atom you are talking about here is the model atom set forth by Neils Bohr. Today, this model, the Bohr model of the atom, also called the solar system model, is discredited. Today, we know that the atom doesn't look anything like this. Electrons don't travel around the central nucleus in an ordered, deterministic path; there are no electron orbits.
There are electron orbitals though. Here comes in the present model of the atom, the quantum mechanical model of the atom. In this newer and far more accurate model, around the nucleus are electron clouds. Electron clouds are regions in space where the greatest probability of finding the electron around the nucleus lies. The electron can be anywhere in space, really, but you can most probably find it within the electron cloud.
In this atomic model, the atom would look like a fuzzy cloud of electrons with a solid, very small core of neutrons and protons.
The resemblance is closer than some of you think. Try modelinng a solar system on a vastly sped-up time scale. Due to precession of the axis of ellipses and precession of the planes of orbits, the planets' paths will resemble spherical clouds with various probability distributions, and occasional jumps between stable orbitals---just like an atom, except maybe not quantized to the same extent.
This suggests that we may be living in a fractal universe.
Actually scientists now accept that electron do not orbit nuclei so atoms really do not appear to be like miniature solar systems. Electrons actually vibrate at different distances from the atom's nucleus.
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