What happens in an atom that causes it to be negative/positive, why do they repel each other, and why does this even happen in the first place?
In: Chemistry
Positive and negative charges in chemistry are really just positive and negative charges in physics. To explain why protons are positive and electrons are negative requires some light quantum physics, but it doesn’t ultimately have a satisfying answer.
The law that opposite charges attract and similar charges repel is just a law of the universe, and one of the four “interactions” that make up reality itself. Without that rule, most if not all of what we understand about matter doesn’t actually make sense.
The tl;dr is that nothing “happens” to make certain particles positive versus negative. They just are.
Though, I think this is a bit complex for a 5-year old 😛
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