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	Podcast:		4. Chemistry and Physics
	Episode:		Density of Matter
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:06
	Publish Date:		2011-07-13 19:35:47
	Description:		Transcript: When you knock on a wall or a piece of metal it feels solid enough. But normal matter is actually fantastically empty, and this is a consequence of the atomic theory itself. If we need an analogy for the atom, the nucleus would be something the size of a tennis ball on the fifty yard line of a football stadium, and the electrons would form a swarm orbiting at the outer edges of the football stadium. The next atom along in a piece of solid matter would be several hundred yards away, another football stadium, with a tennis ball at its center. Ordinary matter, as shown from Rutherford’s famous experiments, is enormously empty, mostly empty space. The illusion of solidity is a function of the electrical force. Negatively charged electrons act like a shield around the positively charged nucleus and keep atoms well apart form each other. Most of the mass in every atom and in all of normal matter, resides in the tiny atomic nucleus.
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