Understanding atoms.

[CoxRox]

Chatting about atoms on 'shout' last night got me thinking, so I've been looking them up. I've found this article that says:
'' In the last lesson we learned that atoms were particles of elements, substances that could not be broken down further.........We can break down the atom of oxygen into smaller particles, however, when we do the atom looses its chemical properties.''

http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/3-atoms.htm

Last night I asked if an atom would still function as an atom if you took away one its 'parts'? If you look at the animated diagram of the hydrogen atom, would it still function in any way usefully, if you took away one of the protons or neutrons?

[LukeMC]

I you took the proton from a hydrogen atom... it would just be an electron?

[CoxRox]

So it wouldn't be an atom any more?

[Purple Rabbit]

The proton without the electron would just be a proton. It has lost the typical chemical properties of neutral hydrogen. It can be considered as an ionized hydrogen atom.

[CoxRox]

I wonder what causes these sub atomic particles to come together to form atoms? You've got the forces too?? It sounds like you'd need organisation or dare I say fore-thought??

[Tiberius]

I wonder what causes these sub atomic particles to come together to form atoms? You've got the forces too?? It sounds like you'd need organisation or dare I say fore-thought??

I know this one!!!

Gluons (awesome name)

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

Oh yes, and the images on that page really don't do the atom any justice. Here is a scale model of the radius of a Hydrogen Atom (the proton is 1000 pixels across, and the electron is 1 pixel and situated 50 million pixels to the right of the proton (thats a lot of scrolling):

http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/index.html

[Purple Rabbit]

I wonder what causes these sub atomic particles to come together to form atoms? You've got the forces too?? It sounds like you'd need organisation or dare I say fore-thought??

It's the strong force. And the gluon is the carrier particle for the force.
Every force has its carrier particle. For the electromagnetic force it is the foton, for gravitation it is the graviton (hasn't been observed yet), for the weak force the W and Z bosons are carrier particles.

[CoxRox]

It's amazing. Does the proton really look like that, like a planet? How are the forces 'locked in' or applied without 'leaking' out?

[Purple Rabbit]

[quote='CoxRox' pid='6692' dateline='1229542074']
I wonder what causes these sub atomic particles to come together to form atoms? You've got the forces too?? It sounds like you'd need organisation or dare I say fore-thought??

There certainly is organisation: the laws of nature. You can think of it as information. The laws of nature can be traced back for a good deal to certain symmetries. So you might say, more or less, that the symmetries ensure stablity to the laws of nature.

Without the symmetries and the laws of nature there would be chaos and no basis for creatures like us to contemplate on existence.

[Tiberius]

I suspect it has something to do with complex theoretical physics and string theory, or multiple dimensions. I'm afraid we've reached the point where things start going over my head (well done to you CoxRox).