We are mostly nothing!

Do you realize that we are mostly empty space? And when I say “mostly” I mean, almost entirely. Not just 75% or 90% or even 99%…we’re something like 99.99999999999999999% completely empty space! Want to see what I mean?

I created a graphic that represents an electron as one pixel, which means that the proton graphic I created had to be one thousand pixels wide and tall. It also meant that the electron, which orbits around the proton, had to be at a distance of 50,000,000 pixels!

The electron is represented by a small red dot just below and the proton is represented by a large blue sphere near the bottom of the page. You can try to scroll down the hard way, but you might end up dying of hunger before you get there. I’d suggest grabbing the slider bar and dragging it down to the bottom. Then again, you might start out the slow way since the point of this is to show you just how vast the distances are between them.

an electron as one pixel
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proton

Now, remember the distance from the electron at the top of the page and the proton just above is only half of the size of the entire atom. This is just the radius, not the diameter.


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