When I studied physics and chemistry in school I was taught that atoms are composed of protons, nuetrons, and electrons, and that their interactions can explain chemistry and chemical interactions. Now I understand that this is either wildly oversimplified or wildly out of date. Would somebody be able to catch me up, simply, on what the smallest building blocks of out world are and how they interact to create matter?
In: Physics
Level 1: It’s not really wildly oversimplified. Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and chemistry is determined by how those electrons bond with each other.
Level 2: While electrons are fundamental particles, protons and neutrons are not. They are made up of quarks, which are fundamental particles. Protons are made of two “up” quarks and one “down” quark, while neutrons are made of one up quark and two down quarks.
Level 3: You might’ve learned that electrons inhabit shells with 2, 8, 18 “spaces” for electrons. That’s not exactly true. Electrons are quantum particles, and quantum particles don’t really have a determinate position. So instead of a circular orbit, imagine the electron as having been spread out into a “cloud” of probability density around the nucleus, and the electron collapsing into a single point position when it’s measured. The shape of the cloud is determined by the energy level of the shell. Higher energy orbitals have weirder and weirder shapes.
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