What is the empty space in an atom…
“An electron cloud is technically infinitely large…”
“Once you realize that all matter is just waves, it becomes easier to accept. Try watching ripples rebound across the surface of a bucket of water and then identify “where the wave is.” Well, it’s everywhere—but you’re more likely to see the part of it that is a peak or a trough.
That’s kind of what matter is like on a per-particle scale. Matter waves are probability waves where the peaks and troughs translate to the probability the particle will be detected there.
The analogy breaks down in that if the particle is observed, the whole wave “resets” to simply a sharp peak where the particle was observed. It’d be kind of like as soon as you see a water peak or trough, all the water instantly piles into a spike right where you’re looking. Of course, to have the spike spill back down into a ripply surface within the bucket, you have to look away and let it do so.
Welcome to Quantum Mechanics.”
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