What does an atom really look like?

How close are cartoon atoms to actual atoms? We wondered what our favorite representation would look like...

[TerraSept]

"atomic orbitals have long been a source of frustration for me"
I immediately liked the video

[cube_cup]

Now it looks like the clouds consist of thousands of electrons. I prefer the cloud model. When location is dictated by probability, might as well make a heat map of that probability and just think 'the redder, the more likely it's there'

[benkayvfalsifier]

Just passing through, see something interesting, and now leaving more confused than when I arrived.

[ryanquinn]

I basically thought of it as picking out a locust or bird when they swarm. The more I’m focused on the single atoms position the more I lose track of the whole. The more I track the whole the less I can find the locust. Then the swarm is the fuzzy position probability of where the locust might be.
Bohr’s model took me a while to break out of 2 dimensions.

[johnbauman]

Now combine atoms into a molecule with ionic, covalent and cyclic bonds using this transform.

[abiyyupanggalih]

Imagine that, that pretty small thing is our universe

[Nonchalant.is_da_one]

Imagine if everything we all did was all wrong and the atoms just look like balls

[ender]

I feel like the issue with the dust in the water analogy is that it gives the feeling that the electron has a location in that water

[slicksquib]

Yes sir, I totally understood all of that

[lalitasharma]

Funny thing is that's only 90-95 electron density is shown here rest 5-10% is spread in whole space goes to infinite

[ayvee]

This grabbed onto my brain with one phrase, basically this in a textbook saying "Any of these could be the real ones!"

[Arcticroberto]

He got the same diagram as originally, but he studied and now understands it better

[Urahara]

Opacity gradient balloon orbital models are the most useful imo. A nice balance of simple and reasonably accurate for a 2D representation. But for a 3D model this kind of moving particle mapping is one of the best I’ve seen, if a little hard to process at first.

[dinamosflams]

that's a problem for your model. cause orbitals shouldn't be orbiting, they should demonstrate the behavior of a particle in a wave fuction. but they can't rotate in such small orbit cause the electron would lose energy and the centripetal forces would need to be too great for it to last or to not cause serious problems

[maxwellquipey]

So is the atom in the center? If so we might never know what it looks like up close.

[ianmercer]

Also just look at TEM micrographs, we can literally see individual atoms, it's pretty amazing.

[sippippimmi]

I don't think one could actually physically see any single sub atomic particle because of how light works.

[Dichotious]

What's the stuff that's orbiting? Is that just every possible position the electrons could have?

[IsaacTorresProf]

In bohm-de broglie the probabilities do not matter. You can draw a single trajectory for a sungle electron. It would be nice if you manage to represemt that too in one of your videos. I happen to be a physicist and I research this particular theory, so it would be great seeing that one day

[OnePieceFan]

If you want more on this there is a full version on a channel called minute physics