Is most of the volume of an atom empty space? Explain.?

Answer 1

Certainly. An atom is made up of a very, very dense nucleus, a few orbiting electrons, and lots and lots of empty space. To give you and idea of how much empty space:

Imagine a full-size soccer field. This is the total area of the atom. Now, imagine a soccer ball in the middle of the field. This is the nucleus. It contains something like 99.8% of the atom's mass. Now imagine tiny insects buzzing around the edge of the field at near the speed of light. These represent the electrons. And all of the space that isn't nucleus or electrons? There's nothing there. It's completely empty, just like the space between my ears.

This idea can be taken even farther by saying that most of the area within the fundamental particles composing the atom is also empty space, but that's going beyond the scope of the question.

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Edit:

I was way off when I said that the nucleus is about 99.8% of an atom's mass. I looked it up. In the average helium atom, the nucleus accounts for about 99.997% of the atom's mass.

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Edit:

One of the people who answered after me mentioned electron orbitals. However, the answer given answer was just a little misleading. Although electrons can be anywhere in the atom, they are still finite and can only be in one place at a time. Thus, the much, much greater number of places where they aren't physically located at the moment are still empty, meaning that most of the atom is actually empty space.

Answer 2

An atom consists of a nucleus, a very compact ball of protons and neutrons, and a surrounding "cloud" of electrons. It would seem that if protons and electrons are so attracted to each other, that they would just meet instead of the electrons orbit the nucleus. However, electrons can only exist in certain energy levels, which have a circumference proportional to their wavelength. These energy levels are basically orbits that keep the electrons at a suprisingly large distance from the actual nucleus. The best analogy of this is that if the nucleus was the size of a pea at the 50 yard line of a football field, the orbit of the electron would be clear past the goal lines. Also, electrons are very, very, very, unfathomably small. So even in the electron cloud, they barely take up space. So, yes, most of the volume of an atom is empty space, being between the nucleus and the electrons. As an interesting side note, atoms themselves are SO small that if an atom was only 60 centimeters long, meaning that the nucleus itself would be about the size of a speck of dust, a mole of that atom would take up more space then the milky way galaxy.

Answer 3

One of the answerers above is correct to compare the atom with the size of the football field. If the 4 corner poles make up the first orbit, the nucleus is like a small pea at the centre of the filed.

The simplest atom is the hydrogen atom, consisting of 1 proton in the nucleus and 1 electron in the first orbit. If we can blow up the atom like "Honey I blew up the kids" film, and if the proton is blown up to the size of 1 metre in diameter, the elctron can be found at about 10 000 m away.

We are all 'hollow' people, making up of a lot of empty space. This concept was fisrt mooted by Lord Rutherford who asked his students to research into the structure of the atoms, after alpha-particles were discovered. Because we are made up of empty space, all bodies can be compressed, in the tremedous gravitational field of the Black holes, into 'nothingness' when all the particles are 'crushed' together.
If we are all 'hollow' - we need not be boastful!

Answer 4

An atom is composed of a nucleus (protons and neutrons) and electron(s). Electron orbitals are considerably larger than the nucleus, which is why it's frequently said that "most of an atom is empty space". But that is misleading, since in fact most of the atom is filled with electron orbitals. Since electrons are very tiny compared to nucleons, again people like to say, "well it's still mostly empty space". Again, misleading, because in quantum theory, the electron's existence is in fact "everywhere in the electron orbitals", so it's far from empty. About the only thing that can be said is that the average mass density in an atom, outside of the nucleus, is very low compared to the mass density of the nucleus.

Check the link below for pictures of electron orbitals:

Addendum: Nope. In quantum theory, it's meaningless to speak of electrons being at any particular place in its orbital about the nucleus. At extremely high quantum numbers, electron orbitals cease to be stable, and more resemble tiny satellites whirling about the nucleus. These especially prepared excited atoms are called Rydberg atoms, and have particular interest for physicists because they more closely resemble the classical Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom. The next link given is about Rydberg atoms. It is instructive to note that ONLY for highly excited Rydberg atoms does it start to make sense to speak of electrons 1) having a position relative to the nucleus at any given moment, and 2) orbiting the nucleus with a velocity. It's in fact a crossover from the quantum to the Newtonian.

Answer 5

Yes..

The nucleus holds almost all of the mass of a atom and it's VERY small compared to the size of the atoms.

The rest of the space are just orbiting electrons...Which are TINY.

Answer 6

Protons and neutrons interior the atoms nucleus, precise?? Now, between the nucleus, and different electron shells, there is no longer some thing, a vaccum, like area, there's a community to conceal, yet no longer some thing to conceal it with. you won't be able to positioned air, because it really is really made from atoms, and it does no longer in advantageous condition, i wish it truly is slightly clearer...

Answer 7

There's sooo much space between the electron and the proton (and possibly neutron) nucleus! Some would even hypothesize that the space between the electron and the nucleus is as proportionally great as the space between the earth and the sun.