Building Stuff From Lego-like Atoms

Julia's Engagement Ring | Image copyright Graham Jarvis 2014, all rights reserved

Last time we talked about stuff being made of Lego-like bricks called atoms. Just to be clear before we talk more, when I say atoms are like Lego bricks I don’t mean exactly the same as them. Real atoms are not actually Lego bricks. You know already that they are much much smaller. In some ways atoms can be sticky like Lego bricks and they can fit together in different ways, but in other ways they are different too. I’m using something you know about to describe something else that you don’t to help you to draw a picture in your mind. It is not always the best drawn picture, but knowing about Lego, as I’m sure you do, is still really helpful to understand how these atom things work and how reality is made, even though they are not exactly the same thing. All of the real world around you is made from these atoms, so it is worth trying to understand.

Let me tell you another thing about atoms using lego bricks to draw the picture in your mind. If you make something made of the same type of lego brick, for example if you made something from one hundred red square bricks, then it will be something that is made only of square red bricks. But the thing you make from those bricks won’t have to be square and blocky, though it will be red. You could build a tall tower from those bricks or small little blocks made of just two red bricks each or giant rings made of bricks. Some stuff that we see around us is just like this - made of only one type of atom and some people say it is made of just one element. As we said before we know of 118 different elements or different types of brick, in our not perfect Lego illustration.

A good example of an element is a precious diamond. It is made up of just one type of small little atom. Each atom-brick is closely joined to all of its neighbours which is why a diamond is very hard stuff indeed - in fact one of the hardest things there is. Another example is the metal gold. Gold atoms don’t join well with other types of atom and so they are often found joined together having a private party on their own. This is also why gold things stay golden and shiny for a very long time when other things made with different more friendly atom-bricks will change. For example, iron goes rusty because iron atoms quite easily join up with oxygen atoms in the air to make rust; which is something made of both types of atom. We will talk more later about stuff that is made from more than one type of element.

So the picture at the top of this post is the diamond engagement ring I gave to my wife on the day I asked her to marry me. And now you know that it is mostly made up of just two types of atom-brick. Don’t tell her that though she might feel a bit cheated.

In the real world, just as in the box containing your Lego bricks, things are rarely that simple or ordered. Most of the stuff you can see around you is made up of many different types of atom bricks joined together in repeating patterns that create similar looking bigger blocks. These blocks are called molecules. Most things are made of molecules. We will talk more about them next time.

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