Are they even spherical? If not are the things that make them up perfectly spherical?
2007-06-23 12:44:48 · 9 answers · asked by arcomart 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, but all elementary particles (electrons, quarks, photons, neutrinos) are treated as point-like in QM. In other words, QM is calculated as if all the interactions between particles occur at single infinitescimally small points and particles themselves have no shape or volume.
The electron's *wave function* might be spherically symmetric, with fuzzy edges, as suggested earlier, but by no means *must* it be this way.
2007-06-23 13:51:37 · answer #1 · answered by ZikZak 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
shape of DNA is spherical???
anyways, I think they are spherical as long as you are observing them as particles, if you're looking at them as waves I think the waves would have a spherical symmetry, but I'm not positive.
I don't think anyone knows the shape of a quark, which are the little things that make them up. In fact, I don't think anyone has ever had a single quark, I think they always come in threes and it's very difficult to separate them.
2007-06-23 20:36:16 · answer #2 · answered by smilam 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A lone electron outside of an atom is a sort of 'fuzzy sphere' probability cloud. It is perfectly symmetrical in all directions, just like a sphere, but it has no sharply-defined edge. It is very likely to be in the middle, less likely to be further out, and very unlikely to be far away from the center of the probability cloud.
If you draw a white dot on a black background, then use several blurring filters in a photo-editing program, you will have something like an electron's probability cloud.
2007-06-23 19:58:51 · answer #3 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no.
protons and neutrons are made up of 3 quarks held together by the massless gluons.now this would give them a rather irregular shape.
electrons are also not really little spheres.electrons can be considered both particles as well as waves.their actual shape is unknown,however the probability cloud will be that of a sphere with spiky edges and somewhere in this cloud will be the electron.
2007-06-24 00:02:05 · answer #4 · answered by Shy Lad 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It good to teach kids that protons electrons are small little spherical balls but in deeper physics you need to consider them as waves and can just guess there positions.
2007-06-23 23:24:08 · answer #5 · answered by Abhinesh 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To most people they are "spherical" or "circular" in illustrations because for ordinary purposes they are treated as a "particle". A square or triangular shape to represent a particle would be too absurd.
2007-06-24 02:00:50 · answer #6 · answered by darrenfoong1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no, i dont think so, the only spherical thing I know of is the shape of DNA, thats it. sorry
2007-06-23 19:52:24 · answer #7 · answered by Julia♥ 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋
each of them is a wave packet.
2007-06-23 19:52:35 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
As they have a spin, I would say that they are not sperical...
2007-06-23 19:55:37 · answer #9 · answered by Scanie 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋