eli5: how does chemistry work? do the particles fuse together? do they slit themselves apart and give one of the other particles half of itself and they trade like clothes? I’m so confused
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There are different ways for atoms to connect with each other, called bonds. One kind of bond is similar to magnets sticking together, atoms with opposite charges attract each other while the same charges push each other away. Other bonds are more like Velcro, where part of each atom sort of overlaps with the other.
The many different kinds of atoms will form different kinds of bonds, and some combinations are stronger or more stable than others. Once a group of atoms forms that is very stable it will tend to stay together and act like.a single unit.
Some combinations are very big, others are really small. Some are flexible and others are not. Some combinations can form bigger combinations.
The number of combinations is so huge that everything and all properties are made up of combinations of a few kinds of atoms. Most of the world we know is made mainly of a few dozen elements, with the rest being quite rare.
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