How can things be solid if atoms are mostly empty space?

It feels solid because of the dancing electrons. So pushing just two atoms close to each other takes energy, as all their electrons need to go into unoccupied high-energy states.

Why are atoms mostly empty space?

Atoms are not mostly empty space because there is no such thing as purely empty space. Rather, space is filled with a wide variety of particles and fields. Even if we ignore every kind of field and particle except electrons, protons and neutrons, we find that atoms are still not empty. Atoms are filled with electrons.

Who said the atom is mostly empty space and why?

Ernest Rutherford
In 1911, a British scientist named Ernest Rutherford discovered that an atom is mostly empty space. He concluded that the positively charged particles are contained in a small central core called the nucleus.

What fills empty space?

A point in outer space is filled with gas, dust, a wind of charged particles from the stars, light from stars, cosmic rays, radiation left over from the Big Bang, gravity, electric and magnetic fields, and neutrinos from nuclear reactions. As the book “Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space” by Dr.

How much atom is empty space?

A hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996\% empty space. Put another way, if a hydrogen atom were the size of the earth, the proton at its center would be about 200 meters (600 feet) across.

How much space of an atom is completely empty?

In an atom there is a nucleus ,revolving electrons ,protons,neutrons etc in a very small space then how 90\% space of an atom is empty. Bilal: Scientists say atoms are 99.999999999999\% relatively empty space.

Why are we made of atoms and not electrons?

Around it rotates, almost like the planets around the Sun, small points of matter called electrons. However, there is plenty of free space between the electrons and the nucleus, which means that all of us, are made up of atoms, are formed of a lot of empty space.

How does the size of an atom depend on the nucleus?

According to quantum electrodynamics, space is filled with an electron field around the nucleus that neutralizes the charge and fills the space that defines the size of the atom. In a hydrogen atom, the nucleus and the electron are very far apart, in the sense that the atom is much larger than the nucleus (and the electron is smaller still.)

Why do we have to understand the empty space?

We have to understand the empty space otherwise space is never completely empty. It is, indeed, full of other interesting things, such as quantum fields invisible and not only. You can think of the empty space inside an atom as a fan in operation.