Have you ever noticed the resemblance of the structure of our solar system with the structure of an atom ????

Question

what do you think about it??????
i felt that there must me some link......

Answer 1

At first it looks appealing, but it's wrong, if for no other reason than the conventional image of the atom is wrong.

We're taught in school that the atom consists of a nucleus (like the sun) orbited by these little swirling electrons zipping around like planets. That's a classical physics view. Physicists soon realized that this model was inadequate. As the electrons circle, they should radiate energy. Losing energy, they should eventually spiral into the nucleus. Thus, matter can't be stable under the classical model.

In reality, the quantum mechanical picture is a little too weird to simply describe. But, the behavior of electrons can be described with orbitals. Some orbitals (the s orbitals) are shaped like spheres, while other orbitals (like p orbitals) are shaped like little dumbells. Of course, these orbitals only describe the probabilities of finding the electron in a certain location. Electrons aren't thought of as conventionally orbiting the nucleus. In fact, p orbital electrons can't be circling the nucleus because the probability distribution isn't spherical. For that matter, according to the standard interpretation of Quantum mechanics, the electron doesn't have a position or a velocity prior to observation. Which is a little like saying the sun doesn't exist when you don't look at it.

Anyways, truth is weirder than fiction. So, the analogy of the electrons rotating around the nuclueus became popular because it is something we can easily conceive, not because it happens to be accurate.

Answer 2

Classical physics describes a hydrogen atom as an electron orbiting a proton, much as the Moon orbits Earth. By the rules of classical physics, the electron has a property called inertia that makes it want to continue traveling in a straight line. The attractive electrical force of the positively charged proton overcomes this inertia and bends the electron’s path into a circle, making it stay in a closed orbit. The classical theory of electromagnetism says that charged particles (such as electrons) radiate energy when they bend their paths. If classical physics applied to the atom, the electron would radiate away all of its energy. It would slow down and its orbit would collapse into the proton within a fraction of a second. However, physicists know that atoms can be stable for centuries or longer.

The actual solution lays in the fact that electrons orbit the nucleus not due to gravity or any other thing defined by Classical Physics. It was explained by W.Heisenburg that sub-atomic particles display wave-particle duality which is explained by Quantum Mechanics. The resemblence which our teachers teach in school is (that electrons orbit the nucleus like the planets orbit the sun) only because it is easy to comprehend and is not the correct explanation. Though it is difficult to understand the electron to show wave-like properties, it is what Quantum Physics explain accurately.

Answer 3

Actually that structure has been abandoned for the Atom, especially since they've photographed a few atoms.

Atoms look more like a fluffy golf ball. The pictures seen might just be of the nucleus (the protons and nutrons) but the fact is these objects almost or do touch each other so the electrons are either moving low around the exterior as a field force (instead of a particle) sort of like magnetism or we are seeing those hills and valley as gaps in the electron shells.

It is commonly believed an electron can move around the nucleus in any area, as opposed to a fixed orbit. Their position is random and can't be pinned down, accoring to Heisenberg.

Answer 4

Yawn........

Old theory, real old theory.

Noticed only that the two-dimensional shape of electron shells looked a little like the solar system, but that's where the similarities end, my friend.

The term "orbital" for atomic structure was a convenient way to try to describe the probability of location of electrons encircling a nucleus. After that, we are left with differences like electron pairs, spin and spin number, electron energy levels, absorbtion and re-emission of energy, etc., more fully set out in Quantum Mechanics.

When you get into the metals, you start considering what I like to call "parking spaces' for eletron pairs from other atoms, for the purposes of explaining transport phenomena (example = hemoglobin carying oxygen into the bloodstream).

Nope, the link just isn't there. It was a quaint scientific "colloquialism" to help visualize very basic atomic structure, not a true similarity.

Answer 5

The planetary motion of the electron around the Nucleous of the atom was modelled by Niels Bohr.
The Solar system motion of the planets compared to the atom structure follow the same Gravitational phenomenon. Except The masses of the atom are micromasses. And because electrons are so small they can travel at quasi speed of light. Since the area to volume ratio of the electron is greater than that of the Sun it takes greater electrostatic gravitational pressure to hold the electron into a structure.
Hence the name of STRONG FORCES has been assigned to the forces of interaction betwen atoms and molecule within their own components.

Hence there is a a UNIFIED RULE that governs all forces of interaction betwen macro masses like the Sun and planets and the forces of interaction between micromasses like the Nucleous of the atoms.

The center of mass of the Sun moves as a 3 dimensional orbital similar to the 3 dimensional orbital motion of the electron around the Nucleous. The reason that the electron has an orbital trajectory is because its mass is not constant at all time.And in complex atoms the pertubation of other electrons cause its motion not to be uniform Just like the perturbations of other planets in the solar system.

Structural formation of the solar system is composed of large masses like the planets and in between the large masses exists a space structure of much larger volume than that of the the planets.The combination of Space and Planet masses forms what we call our solar system.
In the same manner the Atoms also exist as a composition of masses and space,forming its atomic volume.
very vely good question.

Answer 6

Yup Ive often thought it would by comical to find out some day that every atom is a small solar system. And that these systems just get bigger and bigger and bigger for ever..

Read up on this.
Unified field theory is sometimes called the Theory of Everything (TOE, for short): the long-sought means of tying together all known phenomena to explain the nature and behavior of all matter and energy in existence. In physics, a field refers to an area under the influence of some force, such as gravity or electricity, for example. A unified field theory would reconcile seemingly incompatible aspects of various field theories to create a single comprehensive set of equations. Such a theory could potentially unlock all the secrets of nature and make a myriad of wonders possible, including such benefits as time travel and an inexhaustible source of clean energy, among many others. According to Michio Katu, a theoretical physicist at City College, City University of New York, those in pursuit of a unified field theory seek "an equation an inch long that would allow us to read the mind of God."

Answer 7

The resemblance is strictly due to artistic interpretation of what an atom "looks" like. At the atomic level, the electrons are not discrete points nor do they travel in orbits like planets. Because quantum mechanics dominates the behavior of the atom, electrons form clouds around the nucleus. The inner most electrons in an atom have a sphericla shaped cloud. There is a probability of finding the electrons with each point in this volume - there is even a small probability of finding them in the nucleus. The next shell has a dumbell shape - one on each axis. And it goes on. So the similarity is strictly due to artistic license.

Answer 8

On of the holy Grail's of science is to find that link. The unified field theory would combine the physics involved in super large structures like the solar system and the super small like an atom.

Answer 9

I noticed it in textbooks which were diagramming concepts in Astronomy or Physics.

The reality is far different. Atoms look like clusters of grapes, rows of balls, or Indian Tepees, and the Solar System is a three dimensional system in motion, which is far different from the drawings which put the planets moving in circular orbits around a stationary Sun.

;-D Sometimes simplification helps us understand basic principles, but then, it is easy to draw erroneous conclusions if we stretch our imaginations too far.

Answer 10

There is only a vague similarity here. Make a scale model of an atom and one of the solar syatem, and you will see many differences. Planets do not suddenly change orbits or shoot away as electrons do. The scale is wrong too.