why do normal Newton's laws do not work at a atomic level?

Question

as i understand the newton's laws do not work at a subatomic level and i d kno why

Answer 1

The short answer is, because Newtonian physics, while a good approximation of how things work for most practical purposes, isn't really how things work.

The universe, it turns out, it actually kind of weird, and this weirdness is most easily observed at the sub-atomic level, or at speed very close to that of light.

Examples:

If you are driving in a car at 30mph and toss a ball out the window in the direction of travel, 20mph relative to the car, then relative to the ground it's going 30+20=50mph, says Newton.

You, the old lady the ball hit, and the cop who saw it would agree.

But say you are going 90% the speed of light, and you toss a ball out the window in the direction of travel at 10% of the speed of light with respect to the car, the ball will NOT be going the speed of light with respect to the ground. It will be traveling somewhere close to it, but no matter how fast you throw the ball out the window, it will never reach the speed of light or exceed the speed of light with respect to anything.

The reason has to do with things such as time dilation, length contraction, and special relativity. Look up something called a light clock to see a simple illustrated example of what's happening. Also go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
scroll down and take a look at the world line diagram.

Another issue is quantum mechanics. If you look at a particle, such as an electron, it's nature is that of a particle and a wave. It has wave particle duality (all things do actually). In some instances, it will act like a particle, which is what you'd expect from Newtonian physics. For example, if you drop a ball down a well, the only way to get it out of the well is to pull it back up, thus we can say the ball needs x amount of energy to get out of the well. Likewise, and electron needs x amount of energy to escape the pull of the nucleus of an atom.

However, the electron can also do something else. It can tunnel away from the nucleus. This is like the ball spontaneously teleporting out of the well. The electron can do this because of it's wave nature. The vibration of the electron due to it's wave nature can cause the walls of the well to vibrate, and thus the space outside of the well to vibrate, and thus this vibration is an extention of the electron, and the electron can find itself outside of the well. Why can't a ball do this? Well no one said it couldn't. It'd just be very unlikely that you'd observe it.

Also, you and I may walk smoothly walk across the room, occupying what we perceive to be every place inbetween point A and B, but sub atomic particles can only exist where their wave equations are defined as greater than 0. This means that if you were an electron, there are places in the room you simply can't exist. Not only that, but no one can pin down your location for sure because every time someone looks to see where you are, you move. We could only say there is a whatever percent probabilty that you will be found within a certain region.

Strange? Well let me tell you something else. Some particles, such as photons, have been known to exist in two places at once. If you shine a laser beam through two slits spaced close to eachother, it will cause the bean to split into many beams.

If you do this with one photon of light, the photon will "split" so that it can go through both slits simultaneosly. These two photons are entangled. That is, the universe doesn't realize they are two seperate photons. If you impart some property on to one of them, the effects of that will instantaneously show up on the other one. In other words, you have teleported the property from one photon to the other.

Yes, strange stuff indeed.

Answer 2

Newton's laws work everwhere. Even the subatomic level. If you push a subatomic particle its still going to push back.

Answer 3

newtons laws are universal ,for an ex in atomic level there is an equal & opp reaction inside an atom ,it means there is attraction from the nucleus ,there are forces which do not doesnt make the electron to fall into it, so stil the universe is existing

Answer 4

cos electrons n protons n neutrons arre crazy things
n dont newtons laws have alot to do with gravity (i cant actually remember them) and the mass of a single little electron for examle is so small gravity would have an almost nill efect on it?
im prob not making any sense

Answer 5

no longer inevitably because of the fact that is puzzling to declare why we've the guidelines of physics that we do. case in point, the cost of sunshine is approximately 186,000 miles in keeping with 2nd, yet why? Why no longer 50,000 miles in keeping with 2nd, or one million miles a 2nd, or one thousand million? at the instant, physics is modern technique an intensive substitute of thinking, with a number of the brightest human beings we've engaged on what's usually time-honored as "String concept". This concept predicts that parallel universes may be very person-friendly, and there is an particularly, very small possibility that those parallel universes may be waiting to chat with one yet another. yet String concept additionally predicts that if there are parallel universes, then their rules of physics may be very distinctive than ours. some may be very much like ours, with atoms, remember, even in keeping with possibility stars or planets. the biggest to information what parallel universes may be like, we first could desire to nicely known the way and why the guidelines we've definitely got here approximately after the massive Bang. And regrettably, we do exactly no longer comprehend, in certainty we've particularly an inkling. could desire to our rules of physics be altered? we don't comprehend because of the fact, returned, we don't how they have been placed into place. in keeping with possibility a great clever race obtainable has the solutions, and in keeping with possibility they have been changing the guidelines of physics devoid individuals understanding. via the way, the cost of sunshine has looks to have been lowering because of the fact the universe has elderly, however the reason being unknown.

Answer 6

good question. it was once thought that newton was a genius and he still is however the laws he came up with do not apply at the molecular level.
i will keep checking your answers because i too and curious!