Page 41 - The Miracle in the Atom

ir, water, mountains, animals, plants, your body, the chair on
which you sit, in short, everything you see, touch, and feel,
from the heaviest to the lightest is formed of atoms. Each page
A of the book you hold in your hand comprises billions of atoms.
Atoms are particles so minute that it is impossible to view one even with the
most powerful microscopes. The diameter of an atom is only of the order of
one millionth of a millimetre.

It is not possible for a human being to visualize this size. Therefore, let
us try to explain it with an example:
Think that you have a key in your hand. No doubt, it is impossible for
you to see the atoms in this key. If you say you must see the atoms, then you
have to magnify the key in your hand to the proportions of the world. Once
the key in your hand becomes as large as the earth, then each atom inside
the key is the size of a cherry. 13
Let us give another example to comprehend this minuteness and how
everywhere and everything is full of atoms:
Let us suppose that we want to count all the atoms in a single grain of
salt and let us assume that we are able to count one billion (1,000,000,000)
atoms per second. Despite our considerable deftness, we would need over
five hundred years to count the number of atoms inside this tiny grain of
salt. 14
What, then, is there inside such a small structure?
Despite its exceedingly small size, there is a flawless, unique and comp-
lex system inside the atom comparable in sophistication to the system we
see in the universe at large.
Each atom is made up of a nucleus and a number of electrons moving
in orbital shells at great distances from the nucleus. Inside the nucleus are

other particles called protons and neutrons.
In this chapter, we will look at the extraordinary structure of the atom
that constitutes the basis of everything animate and inanimate, and see how
the atoms combine to form molecules and ultimately, matter.

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