What makes us do things- Force

What makes us do things - Force

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding.

- Jacob Bronowski

https://briankoberlein.com/blog/four-horsemen/

 It would be better if we were children because we would ask lots of questions to our elders which may seem silly but are essential to understand nature in is the way. Why do things move? Why do things stand? Why something stops when we catch it?..... and more. 

All motion and nonmotion, (simply to say everything) begin with a force that does some work on them. When we put forces in words we have "PUSH and PULL". People generally have an awareness of many kinds of force like contact force, non-contact force, gravitational force, electric force, nuclear force, and more.

PUSH AND PULL

Push and pull are the activities that we do in our everyday life. These two simple yet important actions make the entire universe stand as it is. When you want to carry anything you pull it. When you want something to go out of the way you puss it. These actions are our fundamental motions. This blog has been typed and while typing I push each key on the keyboard to make them appear on the screen, we use mobile while using it we puss the mobile screen so we can scroll or click on some app and we pull the mobile by lifting it this way everything that we do is push and pull so we are essentially living by exerting to taking the force.

FORCES ALWAYS COMES IN PAIRS

I would have explained push and pull separately but I did not do this because of some interesting and important reasons. Take your thumb finger and press against the wall as hard as you can after a certain time you will feel some pain in your finger which indicates that something has pressed your thumb but it was you pressing the wall. So the only possible explanation that we can give is that the wall has pressed against your finger. In simple words, you exert some force to the wall in return the wall returns the same amount of force in your hand.  So the wall is giving a reaction to your action. This is what newton's third law of motion says "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction".

So forces always come in pairs. This gives us a lot of information. Now, let's take the simple action of walking. When you walk you push (a backward action force) your foot against the ground in return the ground push (an opposite reactive force) your foot in the same amount so that you can lift and start the move, by this way you are able to walk.

IMPORTANT ASPECT OF FORCE

Now if one eat some food say garlic bread one should be concerned only about the quantity of the food that he is taking in in order to avoid indigestion but while one is driving the car only the quantity called speed is not enough because the speed will give you the time to reach a place, your mileage, the engine tolerance but you need velocity which is same as speed but in a particular direction because one can't just reach a place just by driving in 60 km/hr it requires direction to be more specific so such quantities which require the additional information of direction other than the quantity are call as vectors.

So, let us come to force. Definitely, force is expressed in a number rather than a collection of greek symbols for example weight of something is actually a number that we can comprehend. Then why it is a vector? Now take the weight, weight is fundamentally a force acting on mass i.e. the force of acceleration due to gravity acting on a mass. So, the weight is always in the direction of ground (more scientifically it is pointed to the core of the earth) this is the reason for us to pull i.e pull the mass in the opposite direction of its original direction in order to lift it. I hope this makes sense. 

UNDERSTANDING FOUR BASIC FORCES IN NATURE

http://countinfinity.blogspot.com/2010/08/four-fundamental-forces.html

GRAVITATIONAL FORCE

Gravitational force is the weakest fundamental force of all forces the reason will be explained later in the upcoming topic. Think of a demon sitting inside at the center of the earth and he has attached every object including a small grain of sand to Mt. Everest with an invisible string continuously pulling them towards it. As there is the number of objects the force is little but still, it is pulling us all and keeping us in place. In a similar way, there is a demon in every object in the universe which attaches an invisible string to the other objects and pulls them. 

As the gravitational force always pull it is an attractive force. This gravitational force on earth s called gravity. As for every physical phenomenon, there is a mathematical form there is a simple mathematical expression for gravitational force among two objects. It is given as follows

Gravitational force =  Constant (Mass of one object) x (Mass of another object)  / 2 x (distance b/w them)                                                                              

So this means that if the mass is high the force is high and if the distance is small the force is high. So any two bodies in the world can exert a gravitational force. For instance, my laptop and I self which is 1 meter apart has a gravitational force of  0.00000001048 Newton which is not significant but the gravitational force between earth and the sun is 37500000000000000000000000 Newton which is very significant ad strong.

The gravitational force is the reason we stay in the place we want and the planets revolve in a peaceful manner.

https://socratease.co/content/gravity-1/intro

WEAK INTERACTIONS

Unless and until one is unfamiliar with nucleus and atoms in a deep sense it is difficult to grasp this nature of force but I will give the information about it to know about it in a basic sense.

The weak nuclear force (or just the weak force, or weak interaction) acts inside of individual nucleons, which means that it is an even shorter range than the strong nuclear force. It is the force that allows protons to turn into neutrons and vice versa through beta decay. This keeps the right balance of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. The weak force is very important in the nuclear fusion that happens in the sun. It is quite hard to understand at the beginning.

ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE

Electric force and magnetic force are entirely different forces but are similar in many ways. The electric force acts between all charged particles, whether or not they're moving. The magnetic force acts between moving charged particles. This means that every charged particle gives off an electric field, whether or not it's moving. Moving charged particles (like those in electric current) give off magnetic fields.

Even though it looks live very small it is very essential in the structural integrity of all the objects in the universe. Solids stay solid due to this force. this force is far stronger than the gravitational force. The goosebumps that soccer, when you are excited, is also due to electrostatic force.

STRONG INTERACTION

The strong force is 'felt' between nucleons (protons and neutrons) inside of the nucleus of an atom. The strong nuclear force is sometimes referred to as just the strong force or the strong interaction. This force is strong enough that it overcomes the repulsive force between the two positively charged protons, allowing protons and neutrons to stick together in an unimaginably small space. The strong force dies off with distance much faster than gravity or the electromagnetic force, so fast that it's almost impossible to detect the strong force outside of a nucleus. A full treatment of the strong force requires many years of intensive study.

These four fundamental forces make the basic operation of puss and pull to keep the thing as they are. A greater understanding of these forces is given in general relativity (basically fancy complex topics). 

OTHER TYPES OF FORCE

CONTACT FORCE: The contact force is essentially the forces that are caused by the contact of two or more bodies like pushing a door, friction while rubbing something, pressing the keys on the keyboard, lifting objects, and more.

NON-CONTACT FORCE: The non-contact force are the force that acts without contacts like the attraction of compass needle to the north, the attraction of earth and sun and moon and earth, and many more. all the fundamental forces are the non-contact forces.

HOW FORCE IS REPRESENTED IN PAPER?

It is important to represent something that we see in the real world which is very essential for formulating the knowledge from the observations. So as all vectors, force is represented using an arrow (↗). The arrow essentially points in the direction of force and the length of the arrow in general roughly represents the magnitude of the force.

Description of force on fall in objects. Different masses experience different magnitudes of force.

(stimulation made by J John paul)

CONSEQUENCES OF FORCE IN REAL-TIME EXPERIENCE

We experience force all the time but we never take it into the account. The wired feeling when you are in a moving lift, the pain in your foot after a long walk, deformation of the tire after long use, and many more things. 

When you stand straight almost all the forces acting on us like the gravitational force, the normal force, the frictional force, and other forces will be in perfect balance and give us less pain but when you keep your hands parallel to the surface your shoulder bared some weight and causes pain after some time this is because the forces are not in balance and thus causes problems.

The beauty of projectile motion, the amazing water fountains, spider webs, and many other natural structures are a unique combination of forces. All your electrical devices work due to the electromagnetic force. The vision of the human eye is due to the fact that electromagnetic waves exert force in your eyes. There are many more things about forces that can be stated.

The mathematical aspects of force will be covered in a separate article.

  

TAKE SOME TIME EVERYDAY AND START EXPERIENCING THE THINGS AROUND YOU TO UNDERSTAND YOURSELF AND THE WORLD

HOPE THIS WAS USEFUL

TO SEE MY OLDER POSTS CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK BELOW

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/03/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/04/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/

Hope this article was useful and I hope you learned something from it.

If you have any theories or questions regarding this you are free to express them in comments or you can chat with me in my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/phy.sci/?hl=en.

WWAMO 4: Atoms in reality

 

WHAT  WE  ARE  MADE UP  OF?

Atoms In reality

Never trust an atom because they make up everything

An X-ray diffracted image of ordered atoms of a crystal.

THIS IS HOW WE SEE ATOMS IN REALITY

 Nothing is isolated in the world. The previous blogs were an attempt to give an idea about an atom in line with the scientific way of approaching a concept. There is no need to read them to understand this but imagination is very important. This will explain how to identify different atoms and their identities which gives us the real picture of the atom.

ATOMIC IDENTITIES

Everything around us is made of atoms of ninety and other chemical elements. All the atoms of a particular element have the same number of protons in the nucleus (and that same number of electrons surrounding the nucleus). In other words, the proton number determines an atom’s identity. The chemical properties of each element how it interacts with other elements are determined by the arrangement of the outermost electrons in their orbitals.

There is a great deal of variety in the properties of pure elements. For example, at room temperature, some are invisible gases, while others are shiny, metallic solids or brightly colored liquids. Some elements are highly reactive, others inert; some have extremely high boiling points, others extremely low ones. The exact combination of physical and chemical properties is a result of the configuration of electrons around the nucleus, and the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus can identify a pure element.

Most elements are rarely found pure. Instead, they exist in compounds, in which their atoms are bound tightly to atoms of other elements. Of the thirty or so elements that do sometimes exist naturally in their pure state, gold, copper, carbon, sulfur, and silver are relatively easy to identify by sight. To identify the majority of elements, which only exist in nature combined with other elements, you must first separate them into their pure state. Most metals, for example, exist as ores, their atoms typically bound to oxygen atoms.

ORIGIN OF ATOMS

All the matter around us is made of atomic nuclei plus electrons, often bound together as atoms (or ions or molecules). The number of protons in a nucleus determines the element to which its atom belongs. Some of the nuclei and therefore some of the elements date back to the first seconds and minutes after the beginning of time. Others were formed inside stars and yet others in extremely energetic supernovas. The rest are the result of radioactive decay. 

Done using 3-D paint

ATOMS IN REALITY - STUFF AND SUBSTANCE

The reality of atoms is that they engage in a physical and chemical changes. This is very evident in the physical properties that we observe in solids, liquids, and gases.

SPACING OF ATOMS - DENSITY

Density is the number of atoms per unit volume. Density combines the idea of weight and size. I.e. when you say a kilogram of popcorn and dumbell is of the same weight but unexpectedly we can see that the dumbell is smaller in size for the same weight so the dumbell takes a much smaller volume. As all atoms have a certain weight, as density is related to both volume and weight then it must depend on how closely the atoms are spaced.

From the scientific examination, we can see that if the spacing is doubled between atoms then the density decreases by a factor of 8. This means that Aluminium is about a thousand times denser than air and has about the same atomic weight so the atoms of aluminum must be 10 times closer together than the molecules in the air. 

Another main reason for this atomic size is the attraction of the nucleus. A million atoms together will form an object that is visible to us so when the atoms combine together the nuclear attractive pull should overlap with the outermost electrons to get the desired structure. Even a small change in the spacing will cause a great difference.

HOW CAN WE DEFINE SOLID, LIQUID AND GAS USING THE SPACING OF ATOMS?

It is obvious from the above discussion. When you can squeeze something? or is a sponge easy to squeeze or a steel bar? It is the sponge because the sponge has gaps in between them so technically you are squeezing the air out of the gaps and ultimately you can't squeeze it more because there is no more gap. So in air, the atoms are very far apart leaving lots of space between them, in a solid, the atoms are so close together that there is no room left for gaps. Then in liquid, the atoms are at an intermediate distance that they can be squeezed but it breaks down and join again.

ATOMIC MOTION AND TEMPERATURE

Atoms are particles so it is nature that atoms can move. They can move fast and slow and it all depends on the collision and pressure provided to the atoms. As we can't compress a solid anymore in our imagination let us take gas. At normal conditions, 50% of the nitrogen atoms have a speed greater than 450 meters per second. As we are dealing with a very large number of atoms we need to conceder the average value so we use statistics to calculate the speed, a number of particles, and so on. To say a single atom will never have the same speed because there are lots of atoms moving randomly thus they will collide with each other so while colliding there will be a drastic change in the speed. All this formulation of concepts rose from the kinetic theory which we introduced to see the world in a new way.

Now, what are temperature and pressure? while you hug someone your body feels a little warmer it is because you apply pressure. Now, Why do we feel warm when pressure is applied? It is because when we apply pressure the atoms will have less space to move so it will produce lots of collisions so from the conservation law the extra energy produce dut the pressure or the restriction provided in the spacing will cause the energy to release. So heat is generated. So from this, we can have a general statement, when there is an increase in pressure the atoms move fast so heat energy is liberated thus the temperature is increased and vice versa. The average speed also depends on the molecular weight of the atom. I.e lighter atoms will have more speed.  

ATOMS IN REALITY - CHEMICAL IDENTITIES

ATOMIC SPECTRA - SPECTROSCOPY

To identify a particular element, scientists normally study the colored light in a spectroscope, which separates out the individual frequencies present (each one corresponding to a particular pair of energy levels). The same characteristic frequencies are behind many everyday phenomena, including the colors of fireworks and the orange color of sodium lamps used for some types of streetlights. Many of the elements discovered since the 1860s have been identified as new elements or have had their status as “newly-discovered” verified by variations of this technique, which is known as spectroscopy. the spectra are nothing but the distinct pattern of wavelength called a spectrum.

VALANCE

From the roots of Latin, literature valance means to be strong or to be well. But is science we cant take it literally. So in science valance means "the capacity of atoms to combine with other atoms to form molecules" Due to this valance we are ab;e to find out the chemical behavior of atoms. In other words, it is the number of hooks an atom has available. The concept of valance is very useful because the valance of an element tends to be the same in a wide variety of chemical compounds.

Valance is a number that ranges from 1 to 7. The valance of the oxygen atom is 2 and the valance of the carbon atom is 4 so we expect one atom of carbon to combine with two atoms of oxygen thus forming CO2. In general, valance is the number of atoms in the outermost shell ( a shell can only have 8 electrons at the most). The elements which have valance 0 or 8 are called noble gas they hardly react with the elements.

STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM IN A NUTSHELL

An atom consists of a tiny dense core called the nucleus surrounded by electrons. The number of electrons in a normal atom is equal to the atomic number of the element. The electrons are bound to the nucleus by electric forces. The electrons are arranged in groupings called shells, The shells have reasonably well-defined radii. There is a limit to the number of electrons that can be grouped into a given shell. The innermost shell K can contain only two electrons at most. The next shell L can hold no more than eight electrons and so on. The electrons in a given atom tend to be arranged with the shells of the smallest radii filled to capacity. The chemical properties of an atom largely depend on the outermost electrons.

Imagining the size of the atom 

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The series WWAMO- WHAT WE  ARE  MADE UP OF  is over

HOPE THIS WAS USEFUL

TO SEE MY OLDER POSTS CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK BELOW

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/03/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/04/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/

Hope this article was useful and I hope you learned something from it.

If you have any theories or questions regarding this you are free to express them in comments or you can chat with me in my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/phy.sci/?hl=en.

For previous articles on previous series following link link

WWAMO 1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/09/wwamo-2-what-we-are-made-up-of.html

WWAMO 2: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/10/wwamo-2-understanding-structure-of-atom.html

W5: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/06/w5-scientific-values-of-water.html

W4: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w4-structure-and-states-of-water.html

W3: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w3-mythological-stories-about-creation.html#more

W2: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w2-scientific-exploration-of-origins-of.html

W1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w1clear-liquid-aka-water.html

 

WWAMO 3: Understanding the structure of an atom

 

WHAT  WE  ARE  MADE UP  OF?

Understanding the structure of an atom

“Protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality.” ― Bill Bryson

Previously we have seen some basic things about the particles present in the atom. This segment will mainly focus on the detailed structure of an atom, the rules governing them, and the parameters to locate the three fundamental particles of an atom. So this segment needs little attention to understand the concept. 

Image shows an electron ptychographic reconstruction of a praseodymium orthoscandate (PrScO₃) crystal, zoomed in 100 million times. Credit: Cornell University

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-the-highest-resolution-atomic-image-ever-captured/

How does an atom really look?

In reality, we can't see an atom as we can see the collection of them. This is because the atom is almost 10000 times smaller than the wavelength of light. We are able to see a table because the light is reflected by it as an atom is very small the light will pass through the atom thus we cant see it. 

We get answers by collision 

Image No. 10324719 | This is a Rights Managed image. Inventory No.: 1901-51 Source No.: 1901-0051 Credit © Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library -- All rights reserved.

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10324719

The above image is a cathode ray tube. This is one of the original vacuum tubes used by the Cambridge professor of physics Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) to discover the electron in 1897. Thomson's work contributed enormously to our understanding of the atomic structure of matter, leading to the research fields of atomic and nuclear physics, and marking the birth of the modern electronic age. 

J J Thomson's scattering experiment gave a way to know and imagine the structure of an atom. You can get the exact detail on the internet. After the discovery of this experiment, the image of the atom was developed by many people and now we have a complex structure to understand but still, we can understand it.

The alpha particles were used in the early stages now we use the electrons, x-rays, and more to find out the structure.

Illustration of an atom

The is my imagination so if anything is wrong you can correct me.

Let's start with a primitive image and get an intuitive imagination.

Made by J John Paul using blender

CLASSICAL MODEL

The above is an image of an isolated Helium atom 

(The colors are imaginary, they are provided to distinguish between the particles)

The above illustration gives us much information about the atom. On comparing the size of the fundamental particles we can see that the Protron and neutron are identical in size, So considering them as solids we can say that they have the same mass. By the experiments, it is found that the size of the Protron and neutron is 1.5 femtometer which is quadrillionth (1 followed by 15 zeros) of a meter or we can say 0.00000000000000015 meters. They both have almost the same mass. The mass of a proton is 1.67493 x 10^(-27) Kg and the mass neutron is 1.67262 x 10^(-27) which is very small. From the illustration, we can see that both proton and neutron collectively form the nucleus or the central part of the atom and they contribute almost 99.99% of the mass of the atom.

The electron is very tiny as compared to the above two particles. In terms of quantum mechanics, the electron is size less i.e. a point particle but it has a mass that is 9 x 10^(-31) m again it is very small.

Interestingly all the electrons in the universe are identical and you can't distinguish between two electrons if a cluster of electrons is placed before you. The same case applies to both protons and neutrons in the universe.

Imagining an atom like a scientist.

Made by J John Paul using 3-D Paint

MODERN MODEL

This is how a real scientist would imagine an atom. Previously we saw the two electrons in a definite position but in reality, we can't determine their exact position but we can predict their location in a specified region. Here come boring yet most beautiful reasoning of humans called probability. Probability is not a new word nowadays all the sports from football to cricket this plays an important role and we also involve in it like a modern astronomer. 

So in the illustration, you can see some regions brighter than others. The bright region specifies the position of the electron with the maximum probability and the light region specifies the minimum probability of the position of an electron.

**** Now we have a good image of the electron and now we can proceed with some basic concepts.

New words to things before we dive into a beautiful scientific literature 

• An isolated atom always consists of an equal number of protons, neutrons, and protons. It is because an isolated atom is natural so all net charges should be zero.
• Orbits - Orbits are the well-defined paths of the electron around the nucleus.
• Orbitals - The shape of the probability cloud is called orbitals. 

Understanding orbits and orbitals

See the illustration of the classical model here we can see a very thin circular line that can be considered an orbit. It actually represents the motion of the electron in the 1-D plane. It can be either circular or elliptical. Orbits represent that position and momentum of an electron can be measured simultaneously with certainty.

Orbitals are 3- dimensional space (the real space we live in) around the nucleus where the probability of finding an electron is maximum. So it represents the motion of an electron in 3- dimensions. Orbitals have different shapes. Orbitals are completely a result of Quantum mechanics. So orbitals have many restrictions but it makes our job easy.

The main difference between orbits and orbitals is that in one orbit 2 x n x n electrons can be present (where n is principle quantum number) but in an orbital, only two electrons can be present that too with many restrictions.

To directly say orbitals are mathematical functions the describe wave-like behavior of an electron. The following illustration shows different types of orbitals. The orbitals are observed using spectroscopic techniques and are named after them according to their observed shape (s - sharp, p - principle, d - diffused).

ATOMIC ORBITALS

Illustration made using blender and GIMP by J John Paul

Instead, each electron exists as a probability cloud, more likely to be in one place than another, but not actually in any one place at any given time. The figures below show the various three-dimensional shapes of the probability clouds of electrons around a nucleus. The first type, called an “s” orbital, is totally symmetrical—the electron is not any more likely to be in one direction than another. The second type, called a “p” orbital, has two lobes, meaning the electron is more likely to be found on one side or the other of the nucleus, and less likely to be found in any direction in between. While there is only one “s”-type orbital, there are three “p” types, with lobes pointing in the three orthogonal directions (x, y, z) of space. Similarly, there are five different types of “d” orbitals and seven different types of “f” orbitals, with increasing numbers of lobes. (You may think of these shapes as a bit like three-dimensional standing waves.)

• Shells - The shell is the principle quantum number. The electrons in an atom are arranged in shells that surround the nucleus, with each successive shell being farther from the nucleus. Electron shells consist of one or more subshells, and subshells consist of one or more atomic orbitals. Electrons in the same subshell have the same energy, while electrons in different shells or subshells have different energies. Shells are named K, L, M, N.. (which are X-ray notations)

• Subshells - The "subshells" are the orientations and shapes for orbitals, going in order by s,p,d,f.  (will be continued in quantum numbers)

• Energy levels - Everything in the world possess energy so when we enter into atomic levels we have to be careful with the energy levels. "A quantum mechanical system or particle that is bound—that is, confined spatially—can only take on certain discrete values of energy, called energy levels." In this case, we generally speak about the potential energy so by convention we set the potential energy at infinity is zero. Thus, the bounds electrons have negative potential energy. As the energy levels depend on the principle quantum number (n) these are not continuous rather discrete or quantized which means only a certain set of values can exist and others are forbidden. Quantized energy levels result from the wave behavior of particles, which gives a relationship between a particle's energy and its wavelength. For a confined particle such as an electron in an atom, the wave functions that have well-defined energies have the form of a standing wave (which is illustrated above).

• Ground state -  When the electron is in the lowest possible energy configuration in a particular orbital it is said to be in its ground state.

• Exited state -  If the electron is in a higher state than its ground state it is called an excited state. This may occur due to heat, light etc.

Rules for filling electrons in the orbits

• Aufbau's principle. It states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons fill subshells of the lowest available energy, then they fill subshells of higher energy. For example, the 1s subshell is filled before the 2s subshell is occupied. In this way, the electrons of an atom or ion form the most stable electron configuration possible. Here the 1 in 1s represents the principle quantum number. Simply the electrons according to this rule are filled according to the increasing order of the atomic orbitals.

• Pauli's exclusion principle. This is one of the famous rule in the physics regime. To simply say it tells that in an isolated atom only two electrons can occupy the same orbital or the quantum state. This is because of the "spin" in electrons. Due to the spin no two electrons can take the same state. This rule help us to calculate the number of electrons that can occupy the given subshell ( it is given as 2(2l + 1) where l is the angular quantum number. It is named as exclusion principle because if two electrons with the same quantum state is present then one electron is excluded.

• Hund's rule. From previous rules we know that  each orbital can occupy two  electron. So while they are filled first one electron is filled first and then after fill it the 2nd electron is filled. i.e if you have the box and 6 balls first one ball is filled in each box and then the remaining 3 balls are filled in the box.

Filling of electrons in the atom

https://www.texasgateway.org/resource/21-atoms-isotopes-ions-and-molecules-building-blocks

The four important quantum numbers

Quantum numbers describe the orientation of an atom mainly the location and arrangement. (previously you have encountered two quantum numbers n and l). It is easy to visualize an atom using quantum numbers because of the integer or half-integer values. Understanding quantum numbers will help us to know about the atom in detail.

 

• Principle quantum number (n): It is the serial numbers of shells starting from the inner lower most shells to the outer shells. Is has the values of 1,2,3,4... or generally represented as K, L, M, N.. shells. In a overall view it gives us the energy configuration of the atom. The set of orbitals with the same n value if often referred as an electron shell.

• Orbital quantum number (ℓ): It can also be called as angular quantum number because the orbital quantum number of an orbital determines its angular momentum an the shape of the orbitals (See the fig. of atomic orbitals above). It has the values (n-1) so it starts from 0,1,2,3... n-1. It is generally represented as s, p, d, f... which has the shapes spherical, sumblled, doughnut and some other unique shapes respectively. So it represents the number of planar nodes (mid point) passing through the nucleus.

• Magnetic orbital quantum number (mℓ): The magnetic quantum number specifies the orbitals available within a subshell, and is used to calculate the angular component of the orientation of the orbital in space when placed in an external magnetic field. So it wives two important things first, the projection of the orbital quantum number (ℓ) on the magnetic field direction. Its value renges from l, l-1, l-2 ...0, -1, -2, ... -l i.e. if l is 2 ml can have the values -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. This magnetic orbital quantum number forms the basis of the modern periodic table. s, p, d, f orbitals contains 1, 3, 5, 7 orbitals so the values of ml ranges from 0, +/-1, +/-2, +/-3. Each of these orbitals can accommodate up to two electrons with opposite spin. This quantum number brings the concept of spital quantization which means that if l=3 then ml can have 7 values thus the l or the angular component can take only 7 directions in the space.

• Magnetic spin quantum number (ms): As already mentioned an electron will have its own spin which is one of the fundamental property of electron. So an electron can have up (+1/2) SPIN or down (-1/2) SPIN, which gives the basic orientation of a electron. The ms give us the projection of the spin vector s along the direction of an external magnetic field. So it can have two values parallel to magnetic field (+1/2) and anti-parallel to the magnetic field (-1/2).

So with the above we can imagine a atom in more systematic and precise manner.

Electronic configuration

Electron configuration was first conceived under the Bohr model (classical model) of the atom, and it is still common to speak of shells and subshells despite the advances in understanding of the quantum-mechanical nature of electrons. 

An electron shell is the set of allowed states that share the same principal quantum number, n (the number before the letter in the orbital label), that electrons may occupy. An atom's nth electron shell can accommodate 2 x n x n electrons, e.g. the first shell can accommodate 2 electrons, the second shell 8 electrons, the third shell 18 electrons and so on. The factor of two arises because the allowed states are doubled due to electron spin—each atomic orbital admits up to two otherwise identical electrons with opposite spin, one with a spin +1/2 (usually denoted by an up-arrow) and one with a spin −1/2 (with a down-arrow). A subshell is the set of states defined by a common azimuthal quantum number, ℓ, within a shell. The value of ℓ is in the range from 0 to n-1. The values ℓ = 0, 1, 2, 3 correspond to the s, p, d, and f labels, respectively. For example, the 3d subshell has n = 3 and ℓ = 2. The maximum number of electrons that can be placed in a subshell is given by 2(2ℓ+1). This gives two electrons in an s subshell, six electrons in a p subshell, ten electrons in a d subshell and fourteen electrons in an f subshell.

For atoms, the notation consists of a sequence of atomic subshell labels  with the number of electrons assigned to each subshell placed as a superscript. For example, hydrogen has one electron in the s-orbital of the first shell, so its configuration is written 1s1. Lithium has two electrons in the 1s-subshell and one in the (higher-energy) 2s-subshell, so its configuration is written 1s2 2s1 (pronounced "one-s-two, two-s-one").

https://www.texasgateway.org/resource/21-atoms-isotopes-ions-and-molecules-building-blocks

Representation of an atom.

HOPE THIS WAS USEFUL

TO SEE MY OLDER POSTS CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK BELOW

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/03/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/04/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/

Hope this article was useful and I hope you learnt something from it.

If you have any theories or questions regarding this you are free to express them in comments or you can chat with me in my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/phy.sci/?hl=en.

For previous articles on previous series following link link

WWAMO 1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/09/wwamo-2-what-we-are-made-up-of.html

W5: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/06/w5-scientific-values-of-water.html

W4: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w4-structure-and-states-of-water.html

W3: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w3-mythological-stories-about-creation.html#more

W2: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w2-scientific-exploration-of-origins-of.html

W1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w1clear-liquid-aka-water.html

 

WWAMO 2: What we are made up of?

WHAT  WE  ARE  MADE UP  OF?

Getting started with the structure

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space everything else is opinion.

- Democrits 

We all live among a cluster of atoms that have occupied the empty space. From a distance, everything looks continuous, filled, and occupied. Take a door or the device from which you are reading this everything looks defined in its dimension and the space it occupies. But if I say it is not the truth what is your reaction? 

At a scale far too small for us to truly comprehend, the matter is bumpy and discontinuous, it is made up of empty space scattered by countless tiny particles. For ages, this notion of thought is called Atomism. The modern definition of the atom is an intensive work of the past two hundred years work but its history dates back to 2500 years.

From the Democrits view, we have a formal idea of what the objects are made up of. The arrangement of the tiny particles called atoms with some define voids between them gives us a rough idea of what we are made up of. It is interesting to believe that the bone and the stars share the same type of tiny particles called Calcium atoms.

Exploring the Structure of the atom

NOTE: This is not the exact picture of an atom but to understand the concept we need to start with a simple explanation.

 

Now I am going to steal the imagination of Niels Bhor and mix my thoughts with it. Bhor proposed a model of the atom in his words it is more formal and a little confusing to grasp. 

Everyone will know about our solar system so imagine that the solar system is scaled to a size that is not possible even for the powerful microscope to see it. Let's make some changes. The sun is now called the nucleus (which literally means " inner part of something") and the nucleus is composed of two different entities called neutrons (something which is neutral) and protons (which means first in greek) where the sun is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium gas. You may ask what shape we can assign to the. With some scientific reasoning, we can consider them as spherical solid balls. 

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/edu_solar_system_large.png

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/dictionary/Solar_System.html

Let us come to the planets revolving around the sun. First, there are 8 planets, we don't want 8 now so we take only two of them. We know that their path around the sun is elliptical, let us choose it to be circular for simplicity.  The planets are not similar in size and composition so let them be of similar size and made up of something that we don't know. At last scale it down to a small size i.e. if the size of the sun is the size of a basketball the planets are of the size of the smallest piece of mustard that you can find. Now nake the planets as electrons (electrons means electric).

So now we have an image of an atom that is composed of a nucleus and electrons. In general, these have some characteristic properties that can't be taken from them. The protons are always positive and they possess the property of positive charge (charge is a fundamental property like mass). The neutrons have no charge, you may think it has nothing then why does it exist? Well is it good reasoning but it is there for a purpose. The proton and neutron making up the nucleus as the sun is the heart of our solar system if any bad thing happens to it it will affect the whole system in a similar way nucleus is very important. Next are the electrons, these are the bad guys from the outside view but they are essential. Electrons are negative so they possess a negative charge. 

In general neutrons and protons possess the same mass and the electrons are 1000 times lighter than neutrons and protons. In a stable atom, the number of neutrons, protons, and electrons are present in the same number. As electron and proton have the opposite charges the atom as a whole is neutral which mean from the outside it does not have any charge but in reality, there are only a few atoms in this configuration. As we can't see a real atom in its real state we really don't know its color so for the sake of imagination, we can assign them few colors. So as a whole an atom has very few particles and a huge void. 

Now if you sum up the above image we have a Helium atom in front of us. In an idealized, frozen view an atom looks like this.

BY JOHN PAUL using blender

RED IS PROTON----BLUE IS NEUTRON---- AND YOU KNOW WHAT IS AN ELECTRON

Click the video and wait for few seconds

These electrons, protons, and neutrons are called fundamental particles.

Now tight your imagination we are going to look at how an atom would look really.
 

The real picture

Till now we have thought of electron as something continuous and defined in terms of geometry like a sphere. These are true but only in very extreme conditions which gives it a probability of 0.000000001 to actually see in the next 100000 years. what I mean is that this case is hypothetical but real.

So we have to again do some hard changes in our existing imagination. Very well the electrons are in specific orbits but those are discrete and not continuous i.e they lie within a specific region or boundary.

An electron inside an atom can revolve around our earth in 18 seconds which is only 1% less than the speed of light so the electron is a fast-moving object, for this reason, the electron's path in the specified orbitals can't be determined perfectly. So there is a probability of the electron to be any were in the specified rgion. 

New illustration of an atom by J JOHN PAUL

RED IS PROTRON, BLUE IS NEUTRON, GREEN AREA IS THE ORBITAL WHERE THE ATOM CAN BE FOUND IN ANY PLACE.

Additional to the above-mentioned properties an electron possesses spin because it rotates by itself. Even neutron and proton have spin-like electrons but with different values. Therefore the fundamental properties have the following properties spin, charge, and mass, these three properties are used to differentiate the fundamental particles of a matter.

WE WILL SEE MORE ABOUT THE FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES AND THE RULES THAT THE ATOM OBEYS IN THE UPCOMING SEGMENTS.

TO SEE MY OLDER POSTS CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK BELOW

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/03/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/04/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/

Hope this article was useful and I hope you learnt something from it.

If you have any theories or questions regarding this you are free to express them in comments or you can chat with me in my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/phy.sci/?hl=en.

For previous articles on previous series following link link

W5: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/06/w5-scientific-values-of-water.html

W4: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w4-structure-and-states-of-water.html

W3: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w3-mythological-stories-about-creation.html#more

W2: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w2-scientific-exploration-of-origins-of.html

W1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w1clear-liquid-aka-water.html

WWAMO 1: What we are made up of?

 WHAT  WE  ARE  MADE UP  OF?

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.” 

 ― Carl Sagan

This is the introduction to my next sequence of articles on atoms. Atoms are really fundamental. They form the basis of every thing, let it be living or non-living. 

This will not be a formal article but it would make you a good student of science. I have made the article so lucid and simple so that anyone who can read English can understand it. 

Hope you would like the series" WHAT WE ARE MADE UP OF ?? a.k.a WWAMO ".

TO SEE MY OLDER POSTS CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK BELOW

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/03/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/04/

https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/

Hope this article was useful and I hope you learnt something from it.

If you have any theories or questions regarding this you are free to express them in comments or you can chat with me in my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/phy.sci/?hl=en.

For previous articles on previous series following link link

W5: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/06/w5-scientific-values-of-water.html

W4: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w4-structure-and-states-of-water.html

W3: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w3-mythological-stories-about-creation.html#more

W2: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w2-scientific-exploration-of-origins-of.html

W1: https://jjohnpaul.blogspot.com/2021/05/w1clear-liquid-aka-water.html