I have gone deep into a rabbit hole and I’m now forgetting everything there is to know. Atoms are a unit of matter with a proton, neutron, and electron. First off, are protons and electrons physical objects, or are they just representing a positive and negative charge? Secondly, when atoms interact with each other via intermolecular forces to form molecules, what is physically interacting with each other?
In: Chemistry
Protons, neutrons, and electrons are distinct things. You can take a proton on its own and move it around. The same is true for neutrons and electrons.
Now, they aren’t solid balls of matter. When you picture them as a sphere that isn’t quire right. It’s easier to envision them that way though.
When atoms interact via IMF’s it is usually electrostatics and degeneracy. Electrostatics, the interaction between charges, has a complicated behavior with all of those electrons and protons moving around. Degeneracy is the fact that two electrons cannot exist in the same “spot”.
IMF’s, especially van der waals forces, are fairly complicated in their details.
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