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Joe Kittenger, oh man, oh woman, oh human! I could never do that--I don't have the training.
btw, I was discussing lo these many ideas this evening--one of which is what makes a solid solid, what makes water a liquid, and why the noble gasses are all gasses.
But I think most people (these days) don't really understand--at a physical level--that they are on a spinning ball in space, travelling around the sun.
I also think that the largest thing comparable to human complexity that I have intimate knowledge of is the atmosphere--and I live at the bottom!
Did I mention that water is a liquid because hydrogen is so willing to spare that unbalanced electron, and oxygen is willing to take it...ach....chemistry...
Water (molecule) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Water is primarily a liquid under standard conditions, which is not predicted from its relationship to other analogous hydrides of the oxygen family in the periodic table, which are gases such as hydrogen sulfide. Also the elements surrounding oxygen in the periodic table, nitrogen, fluorine, phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine, all combine with hydrogen to produce gases under standard conditions. The reason that oxygen hydride (water) forms a liquid is that it is more electronegative than all of these elements (other than fluorine). Oxygen attracts electrons much more strongly than hydrogen, resulting in a net positive charge on the hydrogen atoms, and a net negative charge on the oxygen atom. The presence of a charge on each of these atoms gives each water molecule a net dipole moment. Electrical attraction between water molecules due to this dipole pulls individual molecules closer together, making it more difficult to separate the molecules and therefore raising the boiling point. This attraction is known as hydrogen bonding. Water can be described as a polar liquid that dissociates disproportionately into the hydronium ion (H3O+(aq)) and an associated hydroxide ion (OH−(aq)). Water is in dynamic equilibrium between the liquid, gas and solid states at standard temperature and pressure, and is the only pure substance found naturally on Earth to be so.
From a point far enough north, you won't see the sun, cos you're tilted so far up and the sun is so far down... you never see it! Those who live close the equator don't see this....
Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
I don't think the concept of a spinning ball in space is hard at all. I'm astounded that we exist, that we are solid. Or we think we are. We are nothing more than a probability. Each atom is full of empty space. How am I so solid when I am so full of space? Why does matter not sift through me as though I were a ghost?
Are ghosts just people with a lower probability of being solid?
I've been neutron scattering. I've fired streams of neutrons at my samples and collected the scattered hits to tell me what shape my molecules are. The neutrons go into my samples and bounce off from inside the atoms and the angles in the scattering patterns tell me the size and shape.
Electromagnetic radiation goes through me. Photons are both waves and particles. Particles goes through me, so am I really solid? Am I really here?
...and yeah, all that empty space! But we're so huge and the empty space is inside the structures...anyways, I'm gonnae read up on the electron shells...it's a way to learn the names and characteristics of some elements I know nothing about....and I'm sure you're glad I told you that! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
The empty space idea isn't quite so weird. There's a big difference between everyday space, which is full of nothing much, and quanutum space, which is either full of or surrounded by dense probabilities.
So it's not really empty in the same way. :-)
They move so fast that you end up with a 3d representation of the orbital shape that looks solid. But in reality if you could freeze at any one moment, there would be dots of electrons in random looking places around the nucleus.
Or we think we are. We are nothing more than a probability. Each atom is full of empty space. How am I so solid when I am so full of space? Why does matter not sift through me as though I were a ghost?
Photons are both waves and particles.
Particles goes through me, so am I really solid? Am I really here?
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