Powers of Ten

[RAV TUX]

Powers of Ten (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html)


View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.


http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/1705/thcatfromaliciainwonderru6.gif

[jgrabham]

I find that offensive - they're discriminating against neutrons :] Leaving them out like that :[

There actually aren't any when they zoom in on the carbon atom!

[insane_alien]

the neutrons are there, only problem is, things that samll don't have colour so it is impossible to distinguish in that example.
if there were no neutrons then there would only be a ball of 6 protons. looks like more than 6 bits to me.

[jgrabham]

the neutrons are there, only problem is, things that samll don't have colour so it is impossible to distinguish in that example.
if there were no neutrons then there would only be a ball of 6 protons. looks like more than 6 bits to me.

I thought you cant have 2 protons touching, or is that neutrons?

[blah blah blah]

I thought you cant have 2 protons touching, or is that neutrons?

You're sort of right. Protons always repel each other but at a curtain distance the strong force will counter the electromagnetic force and allow them to touch under curtain circumstances but you are mostly right I guess.

[Lux Perpetua]

Thanks, RAV TUX. I always like this kind of thing.

[psionyk]

I thought you cant have 2 protons touching, or is that neutrons?

The nucleus of every atom is held together by incredibly strong nuclear forces, which are the only thing keeping it held together, since protons would repel each other due to their like charges. These forces are strong enough to actually attract protons to each other, and are also responsible for holding together subatomic particles such as quarks and gluons that form the proton itself. I don't think it's so much whether they are touching or not, so much as the overall force and energy required to "bring them together". I would imagine that there would be some amount of space between protons within the nucleus of every atom, even if it's infinitely small.

Neutrons should be able to touch, since they have no charge and would not have repulsion forces to overcome. Any particle physicists out there to verify this? :-)

Ditto on the thanks for this RAV, I always had a soft spot in my heart for physics!