Eli5. What happen when two atoms collide?
In: Physics
Before you read: I am only 18 and my answer is based off my knowledge so far:
Depends on the kinds of atoms and how hard they collide.
For “slow moving” and large relative mass atoms they never actually collide, as they are interacted on eachother by fundamental forces. For charged particles like electrons or protons you have the electrostatic repulsion/attraction. Atoms are neutrally charged, so this will not affect them, however perhaps there is some repulsion due to electron fields which would prevent most of the atoms from getting close. The other fundamental force in play is the strong and weak nuclear force (gravity is negligable at this scale). If the atoms came within 0.5fm they would massively repel but this is beyond nuclear scale, let alone atomic.
I suppose if the atoms had a large enough energy, i.e. kinetic, potential or an associating high frequency (wave-like behaivour of particles) you would see large deflections, possibly defraction patterns.
If two atoms collided at enormous energy then they could possibly fuse, but this can only really take place in stars where the force of collision is created by the intense gravity of the star in the core.
TLDR: depends on their mass and energy
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