Almost all of the volume of every atom in your body is empty space: a hydrogen atom is about 60,000 times wider than its nucleus, and the nucleus fills roughly one part in a quadrillion of the volume. So why can’t you walk through walls? Because atoms never actually touch: electron clouds repel each other, and the Pauli exclusion principle stops electrons from occupying the same state. This Short explains the numbers and what “empty” really means.
Science note: “empty” refers to the absence of matter; electric and quantum fields still fill the space. Ratios are approximate and vary by element.
Sources: NIST CODATA values; Particle Data Group (2024); Pauli (1925); LBNL ABC of Nuclear Science.
Visuals are AI-generated scientific visualisations.
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References
1. NIST CODATA recommended values (proton charge radius, proton-to-electron mass ratio).
2. Particle Data Group (2024). Review of Particle Physics.
3. Pauli, W. (1925). Über den Zusammenhang des Abschlusses der Elektronengruppen im Atom. Zeitschrift für Physik 31, 765.
4. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: ABC of Nuclear Science (nuclear and atomic scales).
#atoms #physics #quantumphysics #sciencefacts #emptyspace #chemistry #biggerthanyouthink #shorts #nucleus #science
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Ai slop
– May the force be with you.
– I am the force! Mainly. Except for the rice 🍚
Empty space is really a force field – The space inside an atom is active and filled with quantum fields, virtual particles, and electromagnetic energy rather than nothingness