Science Forums 2

[enorbet2]

As Science has progressed particularly into the realm of the very small, it becomes harder and harder to understand because of the lack of frame of reference. So many of us were brought up with the idea of an atom as being something like a mini solar system, plus we tend to prefer thinking of things as somehow solid, that it's difficult to comprehend that things look solid because of perspective and feel solid because of fields of force. The fact that gravity does not somehow pull us into the Earth displays that Gravity is many orders of magnitude weaker than atomic forces since we as well as the Earth are mostly space.

As vast as the distances are in Space they are proportionately greater within the atom, mostly space, or so it appears with our present instruments. (The Planck Scale is unknown.) Furthermore the foundation of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics is based on that beautiful experiment to which CraigD alludes wherin it is shown that fundamental particles are the embodiment of E=MC^2, that a better term might be "wavicles" because they can act as either particles or waves. They, including photons, behave as both. This does not appear to be mere conjecture. Aside from the double-slit experiment, electron microscopes produce "pictures" exactly through the action of their higher frequency as compared to photons. The vibration is shorter so electron microscopes can "see" things too small for the longer photon vibrations. The reason we cannot yet, or possibly ever, "see" at Planck Scale is from lack of waves of sufficiently shorter wavelength. The characteristic of sub atomic particles, or wavicles, to behave as vibrations is partly what launched String Theory(s). These vibrating strings are not thought to be solid either. It's a wild world!