ELI5; why are we taught that atoms are the building blocks of matter when atoms are made up of smaller things?
In: Chemistry
There are a couple of reasons for this. For one, it has become tradition. They used to be the smallest units we knew about. That being said, we know that’s not the case now, but it would kind of silly to introduce young students to subatomic stuff because it gets WEIRD. Subatomic science is tricky and lots of fancy math and doesn’t make any sense without at least bachelor’s degree level math. It’s not intuitive and puzzles most people. If someone says they really get quantum physics, they are lying. So they are the smallest sensible/useful thing to learn about in school
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