does anyone else think its no coincidence that our solar system bears an uncanny resemblance to an atom?

Question

planets circling the sun? protrons and neutrons circling an electron?

Answer 1

Just about all who responded so far are right. The similarities are pretty thin.

Consider there are eight planets, and eight electrons that orbit the oxygen atom. Could our solar system be an atom of oxygen?

Well, all electrons have a negative charge, balanced by a positive charge of the protons in the nucleus. All electrons have the same mass, about 1/2000 that of a single neutron or proton. Although the sun does outmass all the other material in the solar system by more than a factor of 1000, the difference is less than the mass difference between an oxygen nucleus and its electron shell.

Also, Jupiter is 300 times as massive as the earth. Yet all electrons are indistinguishable from one another.

Another failure of the model is that electrons do not really orbit a nucleus so much as occupy probability shells. Electrons leap from one orbit to another instantaneously. Electrons can be knocked out altogether, such as when oxygen atoms are ionized. We do not notice things like this in our solar system.

Also oxygen (and nitrogen, if you prefer Pluto be a planet--but then, so should Charon, Xena, and other bodies) is diatomic, generally speaking it combines with other free oxygen atoms in pairs. So oxygen and nitrogen, both diatomic molecules, don't really make great models for our solar system.

Answer 2

As others have said, protons and neutrons are the centre, ie, the Sun.

The electrons surround this nucleus orbiting randomly. This is the first big difference. The planets circle the sun on a plane called the ecliptic. If you looked at our solar system side on, the planets are almost in a straight line. Quite unlike electron orbits.

The other big difference is the diameter of an electron and the solar system. If all the planets were within the orbit of Jupiter, it would be more realistic (this is an educated guess, it may be a smaller diameter still). Electrons generally orbit very close to the nucleus, but can go further and further out when the atom absorbs energy. (When they loose energy, they emit a photon of light and fall closer to the nucleus - so their orbit varies - and don't forget, is random).

The atomic model used in schools is generally incorrect, although very good as a learning tool. There are some suns however which far better fit your theory than our own solar system.

Answer 3

The only reason for the resemblance is because illustrators of simplistic science texts sometimes depict atoms as though the electrons circled the nucleus in neat orbits. Current theory holds that electrons around the nucleus can be described as wave functions with discrete energy levels - nothing at all like planetary orbits.

Answer 4

protons and neutrons are in the atom's nucleus, thus they don't circle electrons.

the truth of the matter is that the "solar system" model of the atom is only that -- just a model. scientists were very familiar with the solar system and planetary orbits long before they began to probe the inner workings of the atom. as our knowledge increased, more advanced and accurate models of the atom were developed which bear no resemblance to the solar system. so in summary, the solar system structure was briefly used to explain the atomic structure. such theories, while not accurate, are still useful, for example, in elementary school science classes.

Answer 5

Well first of all your concept of an atom is way off. Protons and neutrons exist in a ball in the middle of an atom called the nucleus.

Anyway, there is no real resemblance. The simplistic way of modelling an atom may show a kind of resemblance but it is not accurate. Electrons do not orbit the nucleus. They simply buzz around it almost randomly, though they do so in different patterns.

Answer 6

The little diagrams that look like miniature solar systems are perhaps 90 years out of date. There is a finite though small probability that an electron will be inside the nucleus at any instant. Luckily this cannot be said for the Earth, at least so far.

Answer 7

You have that backwards, the electron circles the protons and nuetrons which are also known as a nucleus... The sun would be a nucleus and the planets would be the electrons, but yes now that you have said something it is an uncanny resemblance which I think you should look into and research more to see if anyone else has your same theory.

Answer 8

I don't think it's coincidence. There are forces acting in both Relativity/Newtonian science and Quantum Mechanics that define how objects interact at different distances from each other.

But, keep in mind that the most current model of an atom is better thought of as a spherical electric field with waves in it. The solar system type model is still useful, but understood to be incomplete.

Answer 9

No! there two system could not be more different! The atomic system is quantum in nature and behaves in an extraordinary and very non-intuitive way. The orbiting electron model is only a very simplistic way that can help in understanding such phenomena as Rutherford scattering. but judging by the number of similar question here to yours this model is causing more confusion than it should! read up on quantum nature of atomic physics and wonder!!

Answer 10

We are living on a crest of a wave seen as the planet Earth that rolls in what appears to be cosmic turbulence in which energy is transferred toward the smaller scales. Have you ever seen elementary particles born from nothing? Everything comes from the structure of something larger. The elementary particles come from vibrating atomic nuclei. The latter are born from the discovered nuclei of stars and planets that were similarly ejected from the nuclei of their galaxies and so on – all were similarly ejected from the contracting and expanding hyper huge nucleus that creates center of the universe. The 3D-spiral contractions and expansions of this center make it always finite and so existing