A hydrogen atom is only about a ten millionth of a millimeter in diameter, but the proton in the middle is a hundred thousand times smaller, and the electron whizzing around the outside is a thousand times smaller than THAT. The rest of the atom is empty. I tried to picture it, and I couldn't. So I put together this page - and I still can't picture it.
The electron in this model is only one pixel. You’ll have to scroll to the right to see it. Link -via Dump Trumpet
Quantum physics is impossible to wrap one's mind around, and this kind of demonstration is not helping.
At that level of magnification, all you have is a probability of finding something. The electron will not follow a given path around the nucleus, it jumps around randomly.
The mental image we have of nucleus = planet and electron = moon is very unfitting.
Kids are taught the Rutherford atomic model early on, because it's easy to comprehend. A clear analogy to the earth and the moon can be drawn. But it's wrong.
Later, students learn other atomic models such as Bohr's, but they're just models. They can accurately describe what happens to a point, but they're not actually what's happening by a long shot.
What's actually going on is way more mind-boggling than "there's a lot of space in an atom."
No
"The mental image we have of nucleus = planet and electron = moon is very unfitting."
At this scale, you can only talk about a particle's wavelength, which is inversely proportional to its
mass. So, the electron should be huge, and the
nucleus small.
Hmm... there's an idea for another model...
Empty space within an atom is irrelevant.