Why can't atoms change shape?

[speedofsound]

I've always wondered this, why is it not possible for atoms to change shape/texture at will?

[mrmyk]

At will? They don't exactly have enough energy to do that i guess. Haven't done too much physics so can't be sure.

[Nom]

Well considering atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, wouldn't they need to be constant? Otherwise the whole universe would be in constant flux. You can't just go changing basic elements.

[assassin_696]

All an atom is is a tiny weeny nucleus with electrons orbiting it. Most of the atom is empty space. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

Anyway, an atoms shape is presumably determined by the electrons orbiting it, and because you cannot pin down a single electron with a position and velocity they kind of blur as to where they are, you can only represent the probability of where an electron might be at any moment in time. Electrons inhabit certain discrete orbitals, which are necessarily mainly circular in shape because that's the way they "orbit" the nucleus. A sphere is a preferred shape in physics for orbits of electrons.

 

 

 

It's a funny thing to think about, you can't really compress electrons into appearing into different areas and therefore change the shape of the atom. You can compress an atom, but that requires spectacularly large amounts of gravitational strength or pressure.

 

 

 

A lot of it is quantum mechanics, which I don't know that much about, so i'll just leave my speculation at that.

[tintin113]

All an atom is is a tiny weeny nucleus with electrons orbiting it. Most of the atom is empty space. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

Anyway, an atoms shape is presumably determined by the electrons orbiting it, and because you cannot pin down a single electron with a position and velocity they kind of blur as to where they are, you can only represent the probability of where an electron might be at any moment in time. Electrons inhabit certain discrete orbitals, which are necessarily mainly circular in shape because that's the way they "orbit" the nucleus. A sphere is a preferred shape in physics for orbits of electrons.

 

 

 

It's a funny thing to think about, you can't really compress electrons into appearing into different areas and therefore change the shape of the atom. You can compress an atom, but that requires spectacularly large amounts of gravitational strength or pressure.

 

 

 

A lot of it is quantum mechanics, which I don't know that much about, so i'll just leave my speculation at that.

 

 

 

^^ That's pretty much summed it up.

[Rebdragon]

Err, ya, fermions are kind of the building blocks of all matter.

 

 

 

That, and good luck dispelling the strong force within an atom to detach a few protons and neutrons while simultaneously detaching the proper number of electrons and keeping the structure stable. Kind of hard to do manually, let alone in nature (at will at any time; it does technically happen over time with the weak force within atoms).

 

 

 

Well considering atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, wouldn't they need to be constant? Otherwise the whole universe would be in constant flux. You can't just go changing basic elements.

 

Well, you can, but that involves half-lifes and radioactivity, and is a very slow process.

 

 

 

Though, other reactions can create elements from different ones within our universe, such as the nuclear fission hydrogen-helium reactions within stars. Alchemy as well, but that's another matter :) .

[meol]

The form of which? The nucleus alone of the atom as a whole?

 

As far as I know, the nuclei adopt sphere-like forms because the strong nuclear force keeps the protons and neutrons "glued" together in the nucleus. Then something similar to soap bubbles being round occurs (it's a strange analogy, I know). There, the bubbles will enclose a fixed volume and due to surface tension it will try to minimize its surface area, and because of all solids having a given surface area, the sphere is the one having the greatest volume, it will adopt a sphere-like form.

[PaperClipsYaaaar]

I've always wondered this, why is it not possible for atoms to change shape/texture at will?

 

Atoms don't really have a standard shape. And texture is made of multiple atoms (I think).

[Jaziek]

. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

I was told by my physics teacher...

 

 

 

if an atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be a pea on the centre circle of the pitch... thats just my teacher though... when I asked why they couldnt change shape i got the answer "Just because! Its not on the syllabus so shut up."

[Striker6]

Because we live in a democracy, it's their decision.

[Rebdragon]

. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

I was told by my physics teacher...

 

 

 

if an atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be a pea on the centre circle of the pitch... thats just my teacher though...

 

Eh, it may depend on the atomic number of the atom, as higher numbers have more electrons and thus more valences, which would lead to bigger atoms for every eight new electrons after helium, I believe.

 

 

 

Sorry if my Chemistry is a little rough though >_<. I took Acc. Chem two years ago, and decided not to take AP Chem this year out of lazyness, so Chem isn't one of my strong suits. So, if I make a wrong statement chemists, feel free to correct me ^_^'.

 

when I asked why they couldnt change shape i got the answer "Just because! Its not on the syllabus so shut up."

 

:lol:

[TotalTalker]

Maybe because they are so small?

[insane]

All an atom is is a tiny weeny nucleus with electrons orbiting it. Most of the atom is empty space. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

Anyway, an atoms shape is presumably determined by the electrons orbiting it, and because you cannot pin down a single electron with a position and velocity they kind of blur as to where they are, you can only represent the probability of where an electron might be at any moment in time. Electrons inhabit certain discrete orbitals, which are necessarily mainly circular in shape because that's the way they "orbit" the nucleus. A sphere is a preferred shape in physics for orbits of electrons.

 

 

 

It's a funny thing to think about, you can't really compress electrons into appearing into different areas and therefore change the shape of the atom. You can compress an atom, but that requires spectacularly large amounts of gravitational strength or pressure.

 

 

 

A lot of it is quantum mechanics, which I don't know that much about, so i'll just leave my speculation at that.

 

 

 

Well the shape of orbitals change during hybridization don't they? The atom would be changing shape, but it is a predefined shape and another atom is getting involved, but still.

[llamster]

If you tried to do change the shape, it would just break apart. And you know what happens if it does...

 

 

 

[Randox]

Well, we'd be kinda [bleep]ed if the protons in all the atoms in our body suddenly desided to all go to one side of the nucleus and the neutrons go on the other. Without the neutron spacing the protons would be forced away from each other and then all the electrons would suddenly follow suit.

 

 

 

The protons don't all go to one side though, because there 'charge''s repel, so the neutrons provide spacing.

 

 

 

As for the electron shape, why would the electrons suddenly go to a square orbit? Theres no reason too, theres no forces acting upon them that would make them do something like that.

[Craiglowery]

Does it really matter? Can atoms even be seen in their normal stage?

[happybappy]

You can't get all the information about an electron because in trying to get the information you change that information.

 

 

 

For example:

 

If you put a thermometer into a glass of water, the waters temperature is changed because of the thermometers temperature.

 

 

 

 

 

The real reason is that atoms changing shape is blasphemy.

[Tim]

simple. their lattice structure (combined with electrons, neutrons and protons) litterally force a magnetic field on them to keep their structure the same unless chemically bonding. (soz got chemisty on the mind)

 

 

 

btw happybappy, blasphomy is a protest in religon not science (unless your from the curch of scientology O.o)

[warri0r45]

I've always wondered this, why is it not possible for atoms to change shape/texture at will?

 

 

 

Texture is a 'macro' property of substances. You can't feel atoms, you feel the summation of alot of them (often in substances) as a whole. But I think I kinda see what you're asking there.

 

 

 

As for shape, you probably can't change it because it's optimum as a dense, roughly spherical nucleus and electrons at specific distances from that nucleus. It's kind of like asking a balloon to be square. The forces acting to keep that shape are equal all over and thus you get a roughly spherical shape. This following info is rough recall so it may not be true, but I remember hearing something about atoms or ions essentially going flat at the relativistic speeds they travel at while in particle accelerators. So I guess you could say it's like putting two hands on a baloon and pushing them together to get a more pancake shape.

 

 

 

Other then that, you can easily change the size of atoms by ionizing them (they either get bigger or smaller depending on which orbitals are being filled or emptied and thus whether you are getting a positively or negatively charged ion).

[Ezz]

Atoms aren't shaped, they are just built up of negative and positive charges of energy interacting with each other.

 

 

 

And atoms don't have a will :lol:

[meb]

Passing electrons (or receiving them) is the only way atoms can change, but since you can't pass on protons the nature of the atom will always remain constant.

[assassin_696]

All an atom is is a tiny weeny nucleus with electrons orbiting it. Most of the atom is empty space. I think the analogy is the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of the football.

 

 

 

Anyway, an atoms shape is presumably determined by the electrons orbiting it, and because you cannot pin down a single electron with a position and velocity they kind of blur as to where they are, you can only represent the probability of where an electron might be at any moment in time. Electrons inhabit certain discrete orbitals, which are necessarily mainly circular in shape because that's the way they "orbit" the nucleus. A sphere is a preferred shape in physics for orbits of electrons.

 

 

 

It's a funny thing to think about, you can't really compress electrons into appearing into different areas and therefore change the shape of the atom. You can compress an atom, but that requires spectacularly large amounts of gravitational strength or pressure.

 

 

 

A lot of it is quantum mechanics, which I don't know that much about, so i'll just leave my speculation at that.

 

 

 

Well the shape of orbitals change during hybridization don't they? The atom would be changing shape, but it is a predefined shape and another atom is getting involved, but still.

 

 

 

Sorry yeah, I should say orbitals are predefined anyway, not necessarily fixed, but not, err...ductile?

[Google90]

Maybe because they are so small?

 

 

 

Relatively

 

 

 

 

 

If you shrunk down to make an atom seem twice the size of you, would you still not be able to change the shape because it's "small" ?

[Rebdragon]

Maybe because they are so small?

 

 

 

Relatively

 

 

 

 

 

If you shrunk down to make an atom seem twice the size of you, would you still not be able to change the shape because it's "small" ?

 

Although it is very obvious that no matter how small something is, the shape can still change, that example was a little off >_>. You can't become half the size of an atom, and our bodies don't have the strength to change the shape of an atom, especially at that size.

 

 

 

So yes, the shape can change [with enough energy/time], but no, not in your example.

[knives669]

Does it really matter? Can atoms even be seen in their normal stage?

 

 

 

Atoms cannot be seen because you can't bounce light off of them.