Question about atom structure?

Question

I know that the atom is a nucleus surrounded by an electron cloud.
When you look at scanning tunneling microscope images, the atoms look solid, but how can they look solid if they are composed of quarks?
Also, if you were to zoom down to the size of an atom, what would it look like? Or can we only speculate?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Those microscopes don't "zoom in" on atoms. They "feel" atoms. You cannot look at an atom with a microscope like that; they are way to tiny. People make simplified images instead of a realistic one (well, no one knows how atoms really look like, of course. People represent particles as spheres, but we don't know what shape they are in. Perhaps the word shape doesn't even apply to subatomic particles?). If we could spectate atoms, then we would know so much stuff about subatomic particles. :3

? · Answer

Hi,

You can find all the information you need in here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PTO74hNUpM

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Question about atom structure?

2 Answers