Are atoms electrically neutral?

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  • Thread starter Thread starter Ahmed Abdullah
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    Atoms Neutral
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the question of whether atoms are electrically neutral, contrasting the properties of atoms and ions, and exploring the implications of charge distribution within an atom.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant asserts that atoms are not electrically neutral, arguing that the equal number of protons and electrons does not necessarily cancel out their effects due to the nature of electric forces and fields.
  • Another participant counters that atoms are electrically neutral because they contain equal numbers of positive and negative charges, although they acknowledge that this is a simplified view.
  • A third participant corrects a claim regarding the nature of electricity, stating that electricity is not a vector quantity, but that the electric field is.
  • One participant challenges the idea of a neutral point between charged particles in a dipole, suggesting that such a point does not exist.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the neutrality of atoms, with no consensus reached. Some argue for the neutrality based on charge balance, while others propose that the distribution of charges leads to electric properties.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight limitations in understanding the behavior of charges and the implications of electric fields, indicating that assumptions about charge distribution and the nature of electricity may not be fully resolved.

Ahmed Abdullah
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What is the difference between an atom and an ion? Ion has net electric charge. So it shows electric property. It acts like a small charged ball. What about an atom? Does it behave as a neutral object?
Atom has equal number of protons and electrons bind together in the space. For this it is said to be electrically neutral. But electricity is a vector quantity, so equal number of positive and negetive charges doesn't essentially cancel out the effect of each other.
Let's take hydrogen atom for example. It has an electron that is orbiting around a proton. At any instance of time, there is a point between this two charged particle that is neutral (according to couloumb's law). But as a whole this system will have net electric property. So a hydrogen atom should behave like a charged object rather than being neutral.
Actually the nature of electric force (static) is such that charges distributed in space (like or unlike), always creates an electric field.
So atoms are not electrically neutral at all!
Am I right? Please confirm me.
 
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Gross, they are electrically neutral - obviously, because they have the same number of positive and negative charges.

Your analysis is flawed because electrons don't behave as little points whizzing around the nucleus.

However, a similar effect can still exist. Expose a proton-electron system of any kind to an electric field, and the proton and electron will shift relative to one another in response, creating their own electric field. This is called polarisation.

(Electric polarisation that is; optical polarisation is something entirely different).

None of this alters the fact that overall, atoms are electrically neutral - though the statement itself is highly simplified and one might say logically insufficient.
 
"electricity" is not a vector quantity! The electric field, at any point is a vector but you are talking about charge which definitely is a scalar (numeric) quantity.
 
At any instance of time, there is a point between this two charged particle that is neutral (according to couloumb's law).


There is no such point in a dipole
 

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