Atomic

I mentioned before, that once upon a time, we thought that the atom was the smallest thing in the Universe.

The word 'atom' means 'no cut', or 'can't split'. A- tom from 'tomer' - to cut, and the prefix 'A' meaning not.

But now we know it's not. The atom is made up of ..... other stuff.

I can hear you saying, what, Mike? What stuff exactly?

Well, it's mostly made of nothing.

An atom is more nothing than anything solid. Protons and neutrons in the middle - the nucleus, surrounded by the magic orbitting spinny bits, called electrons.

Ernest Rutherford, the first person to describe the inside of an atom likened the electron in an atom to a few flies in a cathedral.

The simplest element in the universe is hydrogen, a nucleus of a single proton orbitted by a single electron. If the proton was the size of a drawing pin, then the electron would be a pinhead, and it would be 1 kilometre away.

So basically, everything is mostly made of nothing. Good to know next time someone tells you that something is impossible.

He's making stuff up now!! Honest, I'm not.