Pictures of Atoms
July 20, 2013 7:50 AM Subscribe
What does an atom look like?
They're pretty darn adorable in the cutest little IBM commercial ever: A Boy And His Atom.
But scanning tunneling microscope pitures like that are not very satisfying really, on their own. Sure, you can see individual atoms, but they look boringly particle-like. Aren't electrons suppsed to have wave functions?
Maybe you even remember what some electron orbitals look like from your chemistry classes, the ways electrons are supposed to smear themselves out around atoms in a sphere, or a dumbbell shape. But have you seen the latest pictures of electron clouds around real atoms?
Or maybe what you remember from chemistry class is the "ball and stick" models of molecules. But did you see the pictures of actual molecules in the process of forming and reforming? (previously)
If you want to know not just what atoms and their electron clouds look like, but what they do, you still need to rely on computer simulations (previously). But the close match between the theoretical and experimental images should give you some confidence that the dipole transitions atoms do when interacting with light really are beautiful, if frenetic, little dances.
But scanning tunneling microscope pitures like that are not very satisfying really, on their own. Sure, you can see individual atoms, but they look boringly particle-like. Aren't electrons suppsed to have wave functions?
Maybe you even remember what some electron orbitals look like from your chemistry classes, the ways electrons are supposed to smear themselves out around atoms in a sphere, or a dumbbell shape. But have you seen the latest pictures of electron clouds around real atoms?
Or maybe what you remember from chemistry class is the "ball and stick" models of molecules. But did you see the pictures of actual molecules in the process of forming and reforming? (previously)
If you want to know not just what atoms and their electron clouds look like, but what they do, you still need to rely on computer simulations (previously). But the close match between the theoretical and experimental images should give you some confidence that the dipole transitions atoms do when interacting with light really are beautiful, if frenetic, little dances.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey, we've seen the main A Boy and His Atom movie link here before. Some of these other links are great, though, so maybe edit and put it a new version tomorrow? You can also reach us through the contact form. -- LobsterMitten
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