A Question , can you drain any atom completely of energy ?

Discussion in 'Chemistry' started by river, Mar 9, 2013.

  1. river

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    I don't know

    But somebody might
     
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  3. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    The answer is no, since an atom is composed of protons and electrons. This means there will always be energy within the electromagnetic potential due to the attraction of the electrons and protons. You would need to get rid of negative and positive charge, but then this would no longer be an atom, since atoms are based on the number of protons/electrons. Even at absolute zero there is still electrons and protons but with the electrons down to as low energy as possible but with electrons and protons still there.
     
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  5. river

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    But what vibration ? And rotation ?
     
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  7. Russ_Watters Not a Trump supporter... Valued Senior Member

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    Huh? Wellwisher didn't mention vibration or rotation.

    Please explain what you mean: these and your original question are very odd questions.
     
  8. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    No. "Draining" an atom of energy (through any of many means) destroys it. The simplest example is annihilation via antiparticles.
     
  9. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Well you can get an isolated atom to be stationary and in its ground nuclear and electronic states and then I suppose you can say that's all the energy you can extract, without converting the atom to something else.

    But you may still be able to release more energy by getting the atom to REACT with something else, whether by chemical or nuclear reaction - which coverts it to either being part of a molecule or being merged into another atom.
     
  10. Tamorph Registered Member

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    We don't even know what's 'in' an atom, never mind do much with it.

    To give you an idea of size, you can fit about a hundred thousand atoms across the width of a human hair.

    If your microscope were powerful enough you would see that over ninety-nine percent of an atom was empty space containing one or more extremely small electrons. At least ten thousand times smaller than the atom itself you would find a nucleus of protons and neutrons. Within those protons and neutrons, but at least ten thousand times smaller still, you would find quarks.

    The numbers are almost beyond comprehension. Atoms of over ninety-nine percent empty space. The nucleus at least ten thousand times smaller than the atom itself. Quarks at least ten thousand times smaller still, and strings billions of times smaller still.

    At present we cannot be sure about strings. The Standard Model can be virtually proven experimentally, but string theory has not yet been proven.
     

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