Question about gases and atoms?

Question

Gases are classified as gases because of the fact that the atoms are spaced apart from one another. However if this is the case then is the space inbetween the atoms in a gas (eg. air: oxygen, nitrogen etc.) a vacuum?
If it is a vacuum how can we breathe properly?
And what's to stop the 'vacuum' pulling all of the gas atoms together into a liquid/ solid?

Answer 1

You have to consider the big picture. A gas is a collection of energetic molecules. The fact that they are in motion and not constantly in contact but colliding is what creates the pressure. There is no pocket of vacuum. Rain drops are separate but you still get wet.

Answer 2

We would generally consider space with no atoms, nucleons, and electrons a vacuum, even though it still may contain photons, neutrinos, and cosmic background radiation. So we can reasonably leave those out of the discussion.

True, every part of any volume that isn't occupied by a proton, neutron, or electron is a vacuum. That includes the space between the nucleus and the electrons. And yes, this vacuum accounts for the vast majority of the volume.

In a lattice crystal structure in a solid like diamond, adjacent carbon atoms are indeed bound by covalent bonds, just like those between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water. In these bonds, some of the outer electrons orbit more than one nucleus. These nuclei are as close as nuclei ever get, outside of condensed matter like black holes. The only space between them is the space between each nucleus and its electron cloud. It's like all the atoms are holding hands. They can move a little but not change relative position.

In the liquid state, individual atoms or molecules are free to move. They are no longer holding hands, but they are still nearly as close together as when they were. The density doesn't decrease much. Other bonds, like hydrogen and bipolar bonds, still keep them close.

As temperature rises, the atoms gain enough kinetic energy to break these bonds, and move much more freely. Now they are in the gas state. There is much more space between them, and the space is vacuum.

Vacuum doesn't pull. It doesn't do anything. It's the absence of anything.

Lungs of humans and other air-breathing animals are designed to extract oxygen in its gas state from air. Gills of fish are designed to extract oxygen dissolved in water. Both work quite well when used as designed. Lungs don't work well in water, and gills don't work well in air.

Answer 3

They are not a "vacuum". Gases are gases because the molecules are bouncing around every where, unlike a liquid where they are all over each other or a solid where they hardly move at all. gases can be compressed into a liquid form, but need a lot of pressure and a container to hold them in or else they wouldn't be able to turn into a liquid. They can not be a solid because the molecules are unable to stop moving.

Answer 4

gasses are classified gasses not for how many space there is from one to another atoms, but on how much stronger is the attractive force between them... due to their excitement energy.
then of course in between each atom, not only those of the gasses, u have void... what u want to have? more atoms???
each time a gas atom come near to another, the repulsive force they generate repell both of them, very earlier than they could reach to touch eachother.

in a solid, like a metal, u may have electrons, flying from one atom to another, but generally its true to say u have void between atoms...
and u breath because air is full of oxygen atoms... and many other gasses... they are so many and so little (no one will ever see an atom with his eyes...), that to us they looks like something continuum.
Also solids are made of atoms spaced with a lot of vacuum between them... don't belive that a solid is made of atoms compressed and in contact each other!!!
if u magnify anything u want at the proper factor, u'll see nothing... except one atom here, one another there, very far from each other... with nothing between them...
and lowering the temperature, or compressing the gas, to make it a liquid, will never help, because, sure they will stop "shaking" and loose some energy, and they will stay more ordinate in the space, but they still will remain far from each other...
just think to a thing...the nucleus of an atom, in chemical reactions, never touch the nucleus of another atoms... when it append u have to hurry and run away, because there is a nuclear reaction occurring... and that don't append so often, right?

Answer 5

The space between the atoms is just that, space. A vacuum is not the same as a suction.

Answer 6

Atoms behave quantum mechanically. It is wrong to think of them as point particles with vacuum in between, because their positions aren't fixed like that.

Even if you could think of them like that, there's no reason we would be bothered in our breathing by itty bitty vacuums. They'd be all around, so they couldn't suck anything anywhere.

Answer 7

hi im 14 i thought the same thing about what was inbetween. and my teacher said simply NOTHING. i know it is hard to believe but the world is made of mainly nothing, you are made from nothing, i am too everything is

hope i helped