Misc questions on atoms, quarks, electrons

[rrw4rusty]

Hi,

 

I've heard that atoms 'flit' in and out -- there, then seemingly gone, then back again... and so on. Is there any truth in this and, if so, what causes this?

 

I've also heard that electrons and quarks are 10 to the -18 meters (or 1E-18? ...I don't know how to get superscript here so I can't use the proper notation). I've also heard that electrons and quarks are one dimensional 'point particles' that have no real size. Which is it or... what is it thought to be.

 

Thanks for any help!

Rusty

[KennyC]

Someone knowledgeable will be along shortly. I think Electrons, Protons etc have actual size, not sure that is true of quarks though.

[Mr Skeptic]

Fundamental particles have no known minimum value to their size. We have tested them, and found a maximum for their size at 10^-18. This is as small as we can measure, so basically they are somewhere between zero size and as small as we can measure.

 

Electrons like any other particle behave as a wave. Thus they can effectively be a fuzzy distribution over the size of an atom.

[rrw4rusty]

Fundamental particles have no known minimum value to their size. We have tested them, and found a maximum for their size at 10^-18. This is as small as we can measure, so basically they are somewhere between zero size and as small as we can measure.

 

Electrons like any other particle behave as a wave. Thus they can effectively be a fuzzy distribution over the size of an atom.

 

Thanks! What about my first question (see OP).

 

Rusty

[Mr Skeptic]

Well, I don't think atoms just blink in and out of existence. They can interfere with themselves however, if you do the two slit experiment with them. However, the total probability of a given particle being somewhere is 1.

[Simpleton]

Thanks! What about my first question (see OP).

 

Rusty

 

I believe that I read an article some time ago, that was talking about a switching or internal fluctuation, at the speed of light, inside the atom. I keep thinking that it was a respectable source and meant to read it again but can't find a link.

Hoping a lot that some body can and I was not dreaming.

[rrw4rusty]

I got this idea and asked this question (do atoms flicker in and out of existence) because of a video I saw which seemed legit and talked about string theory, branes, and m theory. It showed atoms flickering in and out of sight and said that scientists were puzzled by this and one possibility was that the atoms were flickering between 'higher dimensions' or 'other worlds'. In this video a spooky female voice talked over clips from the elegant universe and other videos and constantly came back to a question mark with a black background which represented and was called 'the singularity'. In this way it seemed a little bit off beat but most what it said jibbed with what videos by B. Greene and other reliable sources said. I've described it in case anyone else has seen it on youtube or elsewhere.

 

I've looked for this video for over two hours but... can't find the darn thing. If I could find it, perhaps it actually said and perhaps showed something different that would make more sense or... not.

 

r