this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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The way people learn about atoms is basically a series of nested "this isn't exactly correct but understanding it like this helps you comprehend whatever we're learning", because electrons are so crazy that we had to expand our definitions of basic principles further and further to explain the fucked up shit they do.
Classical physics is another one. It's appropriate for everything you possibly fathom, but increasingly, modern technologies require some additional compensation for time and space dilation.
Wait what? I actually want the "okay, so" on this.
Ok so. There is a confusing aspect of the electron, you can’t tell them apart from each other, every electron is exactly the same. There is a thought experiment/theory that is very unlikely but not 100% off the table. All electrons look alike because they are the same electron traveling forwards through time as an electron and backwards in time as a positron. So there is only one electron in the universe. It’s called the one electron theory and was thought up by John Wheeler.
It's been a while since I took Modern physics, so take my yammerings with a grain of salt. You want to know more about the atomic model or relative physics?