• Question: how do you make a atom?

    Asked by cowen to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Lena Ciric

      Lena Ciric answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      We are not able to make an atom although some projects around the world are trying to make heavy isotopes through nuclear fusion (http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/JET.aspx).

      Atoms are formed when a star explodes, or goes into supernova, because this process requires a massive amount of energy. Different numbers of hydrogen atoms are forced together making larger atoms.

    • Photo: Laura Waters

      Laura Waters answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Long ago people thought atoms were the smallest thing you could get, then they broke them apart and got electrons, neutrons & protons. Then they broke those apart! All the time we are learniong more about atoms so maybe one day we could make them from scratch!

    • Photo: Sean Murphy

      Sean Murphy answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I really don’t know. You could use this program do experiment with making atoms on your computer:

      http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/build-an-atom

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