Atoms: Proposed Building Blocks of Matter

   Thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece, a scientist named Democritus observed sandy beaches from a hilltop. He noticed that from afar, the beach appeared to be one continuous substance, but he knew that up close, the beach was composed of countless sand grains. In a stroke of brilliance, he reasoned that perhaps everything else was made up indivisible, innumerable balls like sand and deemed these theoretical objects, atomos, Greek for indivisible. Over the next few thousand years, atomic theory gained a popular foothold, yet scientists still doubted we would ever have the technology to actually observe these "atoms" as they are now called. Nowadays, atoms have become scientific fact and are accepted by the public. But are atoms truly indivisible as Democritus thought? And if not, what about the constituents that make atoms up? And what about those constituents' constituents?

   Most people are familiar with the idea that atoms are not really the fundamental building block of matter. Atoms themselves are made up of three subatomic particles known as protons (with a positive charge), neutrons (with a neutral charge), and electrons (with a negative charge). Atoms are arranged in a way that the protons and neutrons are clumped together in a dense core called the nucleus which the negatively charged electrons orbit.

In the picture of a lithium atom, the black balls are electrons, the red balls are protons, and the blue balls are neutrons

   Atoms are known to have certain properties based on their amount of a certain subatomic particle. These properties ultimately arise as elements, such as the lithium atom pictured above. The periodic table of elements is a recognizable chart among laymen as the table that lables what individual subatomic combinations culminate into what atom/element. But with atoms and subatomic particles, there came the question of what protons, neutrons, and electrons were composed of. So far, scientists have been unable to determine the composition of electrons, but it seems likely that these subatomic particles are essentially indivisible. As for neutrons and protons, scientists used particle accelerators to slam these atoms together at near light speed to see what was inside them. What was found were two new sub-subatomic particles: the quark and gluon. Quarks are broken up into six "flavors": up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. These names are all purely for labling purposes and do not correspond to if a quark is actually "strange" or "charmed".

The above illustration is represents a proton composed of two "up" quarks and one "down" quark. The squiggly lines represent gluons, the force carrying particles that keep quarks together

   Now to an introduction of quantum theory. In 1900, Max Planck, a physicist working on a problem concerning blackbody radiation, formed the hypothesis that energy was radiated and absorbed in packets, or quanta. While working on blackbody radiation, Planck developed his own constant called Planck's constant, which is the quantum of action in quantum mechanics. Planck is widely considered the father of quantum mechanics.

Max Planck, the father of the quantum theory

   Now that we have an introduction of atoms, the next post will be devoted to the actual behaviors in the atomic and subatomic realm. Keep checking back, ask me a question, become a member, or email me at superficialnickname@yahoo.com. Next post is on the real quantum mechanics! Until then, salutations!