what powers an atom?

Answer 1

What makes you think an atom needs to be powered? The nucleides are held together by the strong nuclear force. The electrons orbit the nucleus, attracted by the electrostatic force. Yes, they do orbit, but the orbit can be represented as a probability distribution because of quantum uncertainty of their position.

Sometimes an electron will spontaneously drop to a lower energy orbit, emitting a photon. Sometimes a nucleus will spontaneously split. Perhaps the electron or the atom is losing energy in amounts so small that we can't measure or detect it, and eventually it's enough for the electron to drop to an orbit with a lower quantum number. But that would seem to be the opposite of what you are saying.

Answer 2

First let me begin I may be completely wrong, but if not... awesome. I believe nothing "powers" an atom; rather, they are molecular building blocks comprised of pent up potential nuclear energy (both matter and energy are theoretically interchangeable). We see videos on TV of particles such as electrons circling an atom's nucleus and we may wonder where their source of seemingly perpetual energy derives.

For one, electrons do not actually have a predictable orbit, but instead have seemingly instantaneous and random placement within their orbit. The science concerning this movement is known as quantum mechanics since an electron's energy level does not gradually rise and fall, but INSTANTLY changes (imagine your car going 0-60 in literally 0 seconds... its not possible with normal physics without acceleration).

Additionally, I believe atoms have a half-life and gradually decay... perhaps this may explain electron orbits though that topic is completely out of my league. Although, I remember reading that ALL matter (i.e. atoms) will eventually decay into entropy and if the big bang is not cyclical the universe will turn into an infinite space of electromagnetic radiation...

Hope this helps... if anything is inaccurate, hopefully other posters will correct me. I'm only a law student after all and not Stephen Hawkin.

Answer 3

I'm not really sure I understand the question, but the nucleus is held together by the 'strong' nuclear force (you might think of it as a sort of 'gravity') and the electrons form a deBroglie-wave probability shell around the nucleus. There really isn't anything that needs 'powered' as such.

Doug

Answer 4

e=mc squared

Answer 5

fisson