For example, if you take a sample of human bone and put it under a microscope, how do you know if the atoms you’re seeing are calcium atoms? You can’t exactly count the protons on the inside, can you? Also, how do you distinguish between protons and neutrons? Do they reflect different wavelengths of light and so have different colours or something? I’ve also heard people saying that we can’t actually see atoms using microscopes, is that true? If so, how can we say something is made out, say, carbon, when we can’t see it? If the answer to that is that we have tests (flame tests for metals, precipitate tests, pH tests, etc…), then how did we know it is that element/compound that results in the test turning out a certain way? I have so many questions!
P.S. I know that nuclei aren’t really perfect spherical balls, but rather collections of protons and neutrons, which are spheres, in a classical, non-quantum-mechanical sense.
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So many confusions here.
Nuclei are not spheres, they are clumps of protons and neutrons, like grapes.
Optical microscopes can’t see atoms, the wavelength of light determines the smallest thing you can see. We have other microscopes, like scanning/tunneling electron microscopes that can image a single atom, but “see” is in the scientific instrument sense of the work, not the looking at it with your eye sense.
Protons have a positive change, neutrons have neutral charge, you can’t see either of them.
Different atoms absorb and radiate light at specific wavelengths, as electrons shift between orbital states. You can see this light and measure it with a spectroscope.
You know something is made of carbon/calcium through chemistry, and each test has it’s own “justification”.
This part of science has been very thoroughly studied for hundreds of years. Maybe you could search for your questions one at a time, and only post the ones you can’t find ELI5s for.
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