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
Yes, protons, neutrons, and electrons are all real things, although they aren’t really “objects” in the ordinary sense of the word. It’s difficult to eli5 but they’re not little balls flying around. Bonding between atoms and molecules is all about the electrons. Atoms have “zones” around the nucleus where they like to certain numbers of electrons. Depending on how many electrons are already in the outermost “zone”, the atom will want to take some electrons from its neighbor atoms, give some of its electrons away, or share them.
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