are atoms really the smallest thing in the world?

Question

why cant there be anthing smaller?
cant u just keep zooming down to see if theres anything smaller?

Answer 1

yes we have,


neutrons,electrons,protons!

Answer 2

Atoms are the smallest particle of an element that still retains it's characteristics. This means that if you break an atom of an element, say carbon, then the smaller parts that make up an atom won't have the same properties as that of carbon. Atoms are made up of protons neutrons and electrons. There is a theory that these particles are made up of many other smaller particles and so on. There is also a theory that the smallest particle would be a string or a loop of vibrating energy.

Actually we can only go down to see atoms and to a certain extent electrons and the smaller particles. We can see them using a particle accelerator which smashes atoms together so they break up and we can figure out what they are made of. As for strings, we can't see them but we have theorized their existence.

Answer 3

atoms are smallest unit into which matter can be divided and still retain the characteristic properties of an element. The word derives from the Greek atomos (“indivisible”), and the atom was believed to be indivisible until the early 20th century, when electrons and the nucleus were discovered. It is now known that an atom has a positively charged nucleus that makes up more than 99.9% of the atom's mass but only about 1/100,000 of its volume. The nucleus is composed of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons, each about 2,000 times as massive as an electron. Most of the atom's volume consists of a cloud of electrons that have very small mass and negative charge. The electron cloud is bound to the nucleus by the attraction of opposite charges. In a neutral atom, the protons in the nucleus are balanced by the electrons. An atom that has gained or lost electrons becomes negatively or positively charged and is called an ion.

I hope i answered you question
PS:atoms are consider the smallest unit of a chemical element.

Answer 4

SMALLER THAN ATOMS?
Are there pieces of matter that are smaller than atoms? Sure there are. You'll soon be learning that atoms are composed of pieces like neutrons, electrons, and protons. But guess what? There are even smaller particles moving around in atoms. These super-small particles can be found inside the protons and neutrons. Scientists have many names for those pieces, but you may have heard of nucleons and quarks. Nuclear chemists and physicists work together with particle accelerators to discover the presence of these tiny, tiny, tiny pieces of matter.

Even though those super tiny atomic particles exist, there are three basic parts of an atom. The parts are the electrons, protons, and neutrons. What are electrons, protons, and neutrons? A picture works best. You have a basic atom. There are three pieces to an atom. There are electrons, protons, and neutrons. That's all you have to remember. Three things! As you know, there are over 100 elements in the periodic table. The thing that makes each of those elements different is the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons. The protons and neutrons are always in the center of the atom. Scientists call the center of the atom the nucleus. The electrons are always found whizzing around the center in areas called orbitals.

Answer 5

Atoms are the smallest bit of "matter" which we can get to by using chemistry (heating, boiling and mixing). Some stuff like Helium in a balloon or Gold in a mine is made just of atoms. Most stuff is made up of molecules or ions which are built from atoms. Once we break apart an atom the stuff we get are just bits a pieces. One bit, called an electron, is really useful because thats what flows in lightning and electricity. The rest isn't stable and will reform back into atoms. Even electrons won't stay around for very long unless we take very special care of them. Atoms are so small that a light beam will not reflect off them unless they are in huge bunches, so thats why zooming in doesn't work once you get down to that tiny size.

Answer 6

the extremely actual theory of the atom got here into being purely interior the previous century. interior the days of Einstein =the atoms weren't precisely understood.It became found out later that the atom became no longer indivisible yet ought to certainly be split.The atomic bomb became the data of the pudding. And at modern-day there are a number of theories approximately what textile makes up the climate of the Atom. Democritus postulated that there exist a substance which he stated as atom.The notice Atom in Greek ability that that can't be divided. He knew that concrete factors alongside with stones,wood ,ice etc ought to be divided. What he fairly alluded to as indivisible substance via organic ability became no longer the of mass that all of us be attentive to on the instant as atoms which may be divided,yet certainly he understood that it became a substance of area.That substance of area became what he stated as an indivisible particle structures which the Greek notice ATOM describes. So the assumption of the Aether which became primitively postulated via Aristotle ,became fairly defined via Democritus as being the smalest indivisible granular substance of the Universe. To day at modern-day scientists call it dark count.the rationalization is as a results of the fact its the smallest volume of the Universe which isn't seen and might't be shadowed. This phenomenon is now defined interior the Quantron theory of the Universe.

Answer 7

To set things straight we must use the whole phrase and consider that "atoms are the smallest things in the world that have specific physical and chemical behaviour" (that of the chemical element they represent).
So there are indeed smaller things than atoms (as electrons, protons, nucleons or even smaller such as neutrinos, quarks, etc.) but they belong to a different scale of matter with properties quite different from the ones atoms have.
So, there's no actual confusion. It's only a matter of using "whole phrases"!

Answer 8

No. Beyond atoms, there are what we call fundamental particles such as electrons, quarks, muons, leptons etc. Some of these make up the neutrons and the protons. Some just exist. If you want to know, we are usually bombarded by muons every second with a speed comparable to the speed of light. But it's small so, it doesn't really kill us.

These fundamental particles, as of now (i think), are the smallest things in our universe. (That's why they're called fundamental).

Our current technology does not allow us to see things smaller than the wavelength of light which is about 350nm, i think. And another thing, we probably can't "see" these things due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle which states that --- we can't really see these things because they're too small so we will never know their position in space anyway.

If you think you can see them because we have the electron microscope, etc. we really do not. They just project a "probability of position image". These hightech microscopes just measure probabilities (quantum mechanics) and energies.

Answer 9

atoms are actually the 2-nd biggest (after moleculas) things in quantum nature .. not the smallest

there are quarks, bosons, etc to where the current science reached .. and it's belived that if there are still something smaller then it should be finit (you can't zoom infinitly) .. there's just a limit of smallness and nothing there is smaller than that. that's the philosophy of quantum physics at least ..

Answer 10

As of right now, the smallest, most fundamental particles known are called quarks. As far as science knows, there is nothing smaller. A relatively new theory called "string theory" is searching for something smaller than quarks, but so far string theory is nothing more than a mathematical system.

Answer 11

Yes, there is--- I just thought of the subatomic particles that make up an atom.

Protons,nuetrons, and electrons.
Protons- Postitive... in the nucleus with the neutrons ( neutral )

Around the atom is a whirling gaseos cloud of electrons ( negative )