Also, how can atoms be solid and opaque if they are mostly nothingness?
In: Physics
You are correct that atoms are mostly empty space, and also correct that the vacuum of space is also empty. That said, there’s a big difference between the two. If you imagine one cubic meter of air, there are about 2.7 * 10^25 molecules of air in that space, each one with about 1-3 atoms depending on what molecule it is. That’s 27,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules (27 septillion). Even if each molecule only contains a small amount of matter, that’s still a whole lot of molecules contributing that small amount of matter. In contrast, one cubic meter of outer space contains, on average, about 10 atoms. That’s about as close to a true vacuum as you’ll ever find.
As to how atoms “touch” each other when they’re mostly empty space, the answer is that they don’t. The simplest way to put it is that the electrons orbiting an atom push each other away the same way that two magnets do. When you have a lot of electrons spread out over a small space, all pushing more and more they closer they get, it creates the feeling of touch. How the electrons interact with each other and how the substance is held together determines the way an object or substance “feels”.
That’s not an entirely accurate explanation, but it should kind of help you understand. Electron interactions are what create a lot of the properties we observe in different materials.
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