9 THE MIGHTY ATOM
t protons give an atom its identity,electrons its personality.)Neutrons don’t influence an atom’s identity, but to its mass. trons is generally about tons, but tly. Add a neutron or t an isotope. terms you odating teco isotopes—carbon-14, for instance, ons and eigrons (teen being two).
Neutrons and protons occupy tom’s nucleus. tom is tiny—only onemilliontom—but fantastically dense, since itcontains virtually all tom’s mass. As Cropper it, if an atom o t t a fly manytimes ed roominess—t ching his head in 1910.
It is still a fairly astounding notion to consider t atoms are mostly empty space, and tty s come togeter become a loyal Nazi, unatingly betraying Jewish colleagues, including many whohad helped him.
real often used for illustration—t actually strike eacimotively c for trical ct in a c actually sitting tlevitating above it at a of one angstrom (a imeter), yourelectrons and its electrons implacably opposed to any closer intimacy.
ture t nearly everybody om is of an electron or ts orbiting a sun. ted in 1904, based on littlemore t named aro Nagaoka. It iscompletely durable just to note, it inspiredgenerations of science fiction ers to create stories of omsbecome tiny ined solar systems or our solar system turns out to be merely a mote in somemucion for Nuclear Researcs e. In fact, as ps o realize, electronsare not like orbiting planets at all, but more like to fillevery bit of space in ts simultaneously (but to be everyrons are ).