Eli5 : If atoms are made of and separated by an incredible amount of empty space, why isn’t everything going through everything?
In: 456
In an atom, you have the nucleus the ball of protons and neutrons, and then a cloud or sea of the electrons floating around. These electrons are negatively charged.
Negatively charged things repulse each other, so when another atom comes close, it meets resistance, because both of their electrons clouds are the point of “contact”.
It’s very similar to how two magnets would repulse each other. Try to push two together and it will feel solid.
If you put enough energy or force in, you can overcome this repulsion. As in, if you pushed two things together hard enough, you could get their nucleuses to touch.
Only then you’ve just achieved cold fusion, and vaporised yourself
Latest Answers