A few basic questions

[Tully_Beaver]

Hi,

Are electrons, nuetrons, and protons actually small spheres or is that just an easy way to understand what's going on (like the bohr model of the atom)?

 

Have scientist seen these sub-atomic partiles under microscopes?

 

When a nuclear explosion happens is this what's going on, (in laymens terms bviously) somehow the atom is split, the protons and nuetrons are split, and the electron energy levels are split, this "strong nuclear force" holding, I guess when u think about, everything together get released and just "messes up" all the surrounding atoms?

[[Tycho?]]

These are very good questions.

 

No, these particles are not infact small spheres. We illustrate them as such simply to make things easier. These particles also cannot be seen with any sort of telescope, it may even be theoretically impossible to "see" an electron for example without making "see" mean something rather different than what we're used to.

 

A nuclear explosion can be produced by two processes, either fission or fusion. Fission was discovered and used first, and uses uranium for example. Fission is when an atom (like an atom of uranium) is split into other atoms- since you know what the bohr model of the atom is I'll assume you know what the atomic nucleus is. This is done usually by very high energy neutrons hitting the nucleus. The atom splits apart, releasing lots of energy in gamma rays, and it also shoots out some high energy neutrons as well. A nuclear explosion occurs when these neutrons hit other atoms of uranium, and cuase them to split, which causes more neutrons to be released and hits more atoms... etc. This chain reaction releases large amounts of energy, which is a nuclear explosion.

 

Fusion can also make a nuclear explosion, although modern nuclear weapons use both fission and fusion. Fusion is when two atomic nuclei merge together. Where fission occurs in very heavy elements like uranium, fusion occurs in very light elements, especially hydrogen. In a modern nuclear bomb they may have a fission bomb surrounding a bunch of deuterium (which is hydrogen with a neutron). When the fission bomb goes off it raises the temperature of the deuterium to millions of degrees celcius and huge huge pressures. This can cause the deuterium atoms to merge together and form helium, which releases a HUGE amount of energy.

 

 

for more information consult:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_bomb

 

(I like wikipedia)

[Tully_Beaver]

Thanks, much appreciated.

[[Tycho?]]

No problem. If you have any further questions after reading, feel free to ask. I already posted about the extent of my knowledge, however there are some very educated people here who would be happy to answer your questions.

[Guest Luchtigern]

electrons are point-like and without structure.

 

Protons and neutrons are each made up of three quarks, which are in turn point-like structures also.

 

Scientists have never seen them under microscopes but there are other ways.

[Severian]

electrons are point-like and without structure.

 

Protons and neutrons are each made up of three quarks' date=' which are in turn point-like structures also.

[/quote']

 

Interestingly that is not quite true. You are correct in a general sense, but if one probes an electron at high energies, you can see structure 'inside' the electron. This is because the electron is constantly emitting and reabsorbing photons, and if you look closely enough you can resovle these photons - so what you though before was just an electron, was in fact an electron plus photon(s). Of course, this is a bit semantic, since at what point do you really define an 'electron'. However, this is also true for the photon, and there is quite an industry now measuring the photon structure function in particle colliders.

 

Also, the point-like nature of particles (in your sense) is only confirmed up to a TeV or so. We cannot definitively say that they are point-like, only that they are smaller than a certain size.

[J.C.MacSwell]

Interestingly that is not quite true. You are correct in a general sense' date=' but if one probes an electron at high energies, you can see structure 'inside' the electron. This is because the electron is constantly emitting and reabsorbing photons, and if you look closely enough you can resovle these photons - so what you though before was just an electron, was in fact an electron plus photon(s). Of course, this is a bit semantic, since at what point do you really define an 'electron'. However, this is also true for the photon, and there is quite an industry now measuring the photon structure function in particle colliders.

 

Also, the point-like nature of particles (in your sense) is only confirmed up to a TeV or so. We cannot definitively say that they are point-like, only that they are smaller than a certain size.[/quote']

 

Also if there are extra dimensions (Kaluza-Klein theories) then what we consider a "point" may actually have structure.