INSIDE THE MATTER (Part- 1)
In our day to day life we came across with different people
and different sort of things. Well all these things are nothing but matter
(Some have emotion and feeling and some haven’t).
In fact; there are certain matters that we can’t see or
perceive through our senses like air, microorganisms (Bacteria, viruses) etc.
Then what is matter?
Matter is something that occupies space (It may be tiny or, huge) & although we have difference in macro level but, all the matters are same in micro level.
We all are made up of with the same matter. So, it may be
you or, me or, your chair or, your cell phone; we all are of same stuff.
Yes; if you keep on zooming any matter or, object around you
including yourself then you will find the same thing in you and the objects in
a very finer level. So let us explore what lies inside a matter
We will consider a cup of coffee as our reference matter for
this exploration.
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| A coffee cup |
Let us see it in a macro level -:
So, we as we know coffee is made by adding milk with coffee powder with some sugar (if needed).
Now let us zoom it further -:
Here we come to a molecular level and now we can see the individual molecules of milk, sugar and coffee. Well at this level also we find distinction between the individual components that makes coffee. We are now observing size at nano scale, i.e., one billionth of a meter.
Let us take an example to understand this size. Well this
implies –
If a nano-particle was the size of a football then the size
of a street dog will be as big as earth.
In the below image, we see five benzene molecule and its
closed hexagonal structure at a scale of half of a nano meter.
What if we go still deeper, i.e., zooming to atomic level?
Well here we will find some distinct individual particles
called as “ATOMS”. Here we cannot distinguish which one is milk or, which one
is sugar but, here we will see some individual strange particles that are held
together by an invisible force.
The different atom we will see here is calcium, carbon,
hydrogen etc. so here also we see difference between atoms, i.e., some atoms are
larger and some are smaller etc.
What if we go even deeper and from deeper I mean inside the
atoms. Let us first move to a bigger atom; maybe we could see something
amazing.
Now, our scale is become even smaller and now we will use
femtometer for measuring length and distance. Well how small a femtometer is?
A femtometer is a quadrillionth (10-15, i.e.,
fifteen zeros after one) of a meter.
To understand this -:
If a nano particle is the size of a football then within
this a 100,000 (a hundred thousand) small particles can be placed with a size
of one femtometer.
But, it is not the interesting thing than what we are going
to discover.
Down below the atomic level; we see a whole different world
with different laws of physics and this is the quantum level.
Here things don’t behave in a regular manner and perhaps our
common sense became a non-sense at this level.
Here particles disappear all of a sudden and then reappear
at another place just like teleportation in science fiction movies like star
trek beyond. Well the amusement doesn’t end here at all; Particles at quantum
level present in more than one place at the same time.
See this picture below which shows how it happens-
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| Quantum Foam |
Here we will find only three kinds of particles interacting with
each other. They are-
- 1. Electrons
- 2. Protons &
- 3. Neutrons
Here, Protons and neutrons are held together and called as
“Nucleus”. The electrons revolve all around this nucleus like planets revolve around
the sun but, there is a difference –
Whereas planets move around the sun in an elliptical manner
and in a certain path; electrons moves all around the nucleus and forms an
electron cloud over the nucleus.
The below picture shows this –
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| Atom- A heavy nucleus around which electrons move |
If we go on counting the number of electrons, protons and
neutrons in the calcium atom then we will find that, there are
Number of protons = 20
Number of electrons = 20
Number of neutrons = 20
From here; a very familiar term originates, i.e, “Atomic
number”
The atomic number of any atom is nothing but the number of
protons present in it.
An atom (In general) is neutral as the number of protons and
electrons are same in it.
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