|
|
|
The fog crawls over the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia in tight formation, as if a liquid, leaving one to wonder if there really is a difference...
TheThe relative ease in which matter at the right temperature will suddenly change state suggests that something very simple may be at work. That the vapour above acts in ways similar to a liquid is not surprising, given that the fog is actually made of tiny droplets of liquid water. The fact that these droplets have relatively large spaces between them compared to the homogeny of a pool of water, yet still, as a whole, they behave partly as a pool would, indicates that the distance between things of this universe is not so relevant a factor as we may make it out to be. If an atom were the size of a stadium, it would be quite difficult for most spectators to see the nucleus. That tiny size in such a large system does not matter - the electrons are still kept in orbit, despite the fact that they would be flying around, outside the stadium, at a very high rate of speed. In fact, it's not until very high energy states are met that the electrons begin their escape. The Earth is a long ways from the sun - around 1200 times the width of the Earth itself. The speed limit of the universe is the speed of light, roughly 1,000,000 times the speed of sound. There are billions of atoms in a snowflake. Yet big or small, the numbers always obey the same laws of physics. So it might be a good idea not to compare things by mere numbers alone: As massive as the suns' gravity is - being able to swing whole planets around its giant hip like a hula hoop - it still isn't strong enough to pull a mere electron away from an atom in a snowflake.
|
| ||||||||||||||||