ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Chemistry: 4.2 Subatomic Particles 209 Views
Share It!
Description:
Get ready, Shmoopers, today we're going to take things subatomic. But not in the dangerous way that Ant Man did. We're not as brave as he is.
Transcript
- 00:03
Isaac Isaacson is a fan of both [Scientist in a lab]
- 00:06
science and science fiction. His all-time
- 00:09
favorite book is Fantastic Voyage (he was
- 00:12
even named after the author, Isaac Asimov),
- 00:15
where a few people are shrunk down to a
Full Transcript
- 00:17
microscopic size and injected into a [People shrink, and an injection is given to a girl]
- 00:19
human body. Anyway, Dr. Isaacson has always
- 00:21
dreamed of taking a similar journey--not
- 00:24
into a human being, but into various
- 00:26
elements--and now thanks to his new
- 00:28
invention, the Shrinky-Dinker 2000, he [Strange looking gun appears]
- 00:31
can. With the help of his trusty lab
- 00:33
assistants, Larry and Curly (yeah, [Larry and Curly bump heads]
- 00:35
their names are totally just a
- 00:36
coincidence), the good doctor is about to
- 00:38
take the adventure of a lifetime. To get [Dr Isaacson rubbing his hands together]
- 00:41
things started, Dr. Isaacson is
- 00:42
miniaturized and his subatomic
- 00:45
submarine is sent sailing into a tank of
- 00:47
hydrogen. As the doctor navigates his [The little submarine is put into a tank]
- 00:50
ship about the tank, he observes the
- 00:51
hydrogen atoms in action and makes some
- 00:54
notes, although it would be tough for any [Making notes in the cockpit of the submarine]
- 00:56
normal-sized human being to read them...
- 00:57
Well, hope the re-enlargement phase goes [Person trying to read the notes through a microscope]
- 00:59
okay. Well, the first thing Dr. Isaacson
- 01:02
observes is the nucleus of a hydrogen
- 01:04
atom, which contains just a single proton, [The submarine going around the proton]
- 01:07
making hydrogen the lightest of all the
- 01:10
elements. If you're ever going to give an
- 01:11
element a piggyback ride, well you want [Girl with a hydrogen atom on her back]
- 01:13
to ride this one. The doctor then takes a
- 01:15
gander at the atom's neutron, the only
- 01:17
subatomic particle present with no [The submarine going around the neutron]
- 01:19
electrical charge. Yep, it's neutral, which
- 01:22
is where the word neutron comes from. Yeah,
- 01:25
it's the Switzerland of subatomic particles. [Switzerland with its hands up]
- 01:26
Well now, outside the nucleus, Dr.
- 01:28
Isaacson notices an electron go whizzing
- 01:31
by the outside of his submarine. He knows
- 01:33
that these are the negatively charged
- 01:35
pieces of an atom, and the reason they [The submarine next to an electron]
- 01:38
aren't flying off into other regions of
- 01:40
the tank is because the negative charge
- 01:41
keeps them attracted to the positive [The negative charge attracting the electron]
- 01:43
charge of the proton, so they stick
- 01:46
around. An electron is like a
- 01:48
star-crossed lover who can never be with
- 01:50
the object of his unrequited love but
- 01:52
hangs out so he can keep an eye on her
- 01:54
all the time. Okay, that's not a star- [Electron wearing love heart glasses following the proton]
- 01:56
crossed lover, that's a stalker, but still... [Police officer gets out a restraining order]
- 01:58
Once Dr. Isaacson has had his fill of
- 02:01
hydrogen, Larry and Curly remove him from
- 02:03
the tank and let him play with a few [The submarine is swapped tanks]
- 02:04
other elements. There's helium,
- 02:08
with an atomic number of two, meaning it
- 02:10
has two protons--twice as many as [The two protons are demonstrated]
- 02:12
hydrogen; copper, with 29 protons; and
- 02:16
uranium, with a whopping ninety-two
- 02:19
protons. Of course, no matter how many
- 02:21
protons an element has, Dr. Isaacson has [Drawing a love heart on the periodic table]
- 02:24
no favorites; they're all his babies. After
- 02:26
a long, exhausting day of voyaging
- 02:27
through the elements, the doctor is
- 02:29
finally ready to be retrieved and
- 02:30
returned to his normal incredible height
- 02:32
of 5 feet 2 inches. If only Larry and [The doctor asking to be taken out]
- 02:34
Curly hadn't bumped heads while rushing
- 02:36
about the lab in a frenzy... Well, they should
- 02:38
come to in an hour so. They can't see you,
- 02:41
doctor. Yeah, wave your arms all you want. [The doctor waving his arms in the submarine]
Up Next
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Related Videos
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?
AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 1, Problem 1. Which literary device is used in lines 31 to 37?
AP® English Literature and Composition Passage Drill 2, Problem 1. What claim does Bacon make that contradicts the maxim "Whatsoever is delig...