Do atoms age?

Question

Do atoms age? And if so , is there anything smaller than an atom besides a quark. If atoms don't age, then does time exist? Im wondering if there is a "base unit" to all things that is ageless. Becuse if so it would greatly help my set of beliefs on the existance of the univers and time.

Answer 1

Because the properties of the fundamental particles, quarks and leptons, are fully described in a handful of quantum numbers, they cannot change. So atoms do not age.

Answer 2

Yes, they do. But it depends on how you define age. Check out the Chart of Nuclides. This will list the half-lives of the various known isotopes, letting you know how long they live. Some elements are incredibly stable, for instance hydrogen is made out of a proton and an electron--both particles are notoriously stable--but then to say that a hydrogen atom will exist forever like it is--this is likely a fallacy. If you are human, time exists. If you are wondering whether your ideas fit some sort of external reality is illogical, as the basic presumption for this argument is that the world is not made of ideas.

Answer 3

some atoms do "age" in the sense that they decay through radiation, so the parts of atoms become different things. Quarks are the smallest known particle that we have direct evidence for, but we are gaining evidence for "strings" which are 2 dimensional vibrating strands of energy that make up everything in the universe. If you're interested in "string theory" watch this: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html It has a lot of really interesting stuff.

Answer 4

I doubt that atoms "age".

If they did, then macro-level physics probably would be much different than it is.

What do you suppose would be the difference between a "young electon" and an "old" electron?

"aging" seems to be confined to structural arrangements of electron-shell configurations with each other.

"seeking more stable configurations" does not change the electrons (or protons/neutrons) themselves, but just how they are arranged.

Atomic nucleii all tend toward minimizing(or maximizing) binding energy / nucleon ... and maybe it's every atom's dream to "be iron"

It seems to be the "bathtub-bottom" of fusion/fission processes

I guess each time the "proton-count" of an atom changes, the electron-count changes with it

Answer 5

Unable to answer you precisely, but I hope that atoms do age and die even. I'm thinking of all the atomic waste buried somewhere in the world.
Looking forward to the answers you will receive.

Answer 6

atoms can neither be created nor be destroyed.

Answer 7

yes and they throw the wildest birthday parties too

Answer 8

no because if they did then the universe should be destroyed