Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim & Moby.
Tim is reading a letter.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what in the world are atoms? From, Kris.
The signature indicates that the letter was submitted via the internet.
Tim is shown wearing a shirt with an image on it. The image is a circle with a light blue outer section and a dark blue inner section. In the center of the circle within the dark blue section is a cluster of spheres.
TIM: What in the world isn't an atom? Air, water, pants, leaves, robots, and humans are all made up of atoms! This is the periodic table of elements, and when you take chemistry, it becomes your best friend.
The periodic table is shown.
Text reads: The Periodic Table of Elements
The table consists of 103 boxes. Each box contains a chemical symbol and an integer from 1 to 103. The chemical symbol is either a single upper case letter or one upper case letter followed by one or two lower case letters. There are 10 different colored regions of the table made of up neighboring boxes.
While Tim is speaking, Moby moves in front of the Periodic Table.
TIM: This chart shows and predicts every known element in the universe—oxygen, iron, lead, and so on.
Three larger element boxes arrive, appearing to originate from positions on the periodic table. The larger boxes contain more details, described below.
Box 1 o
Text reads: 82 o Text reads: Upper P b o Text reads: Upper Lead o Text reads: 207.2 • Box 2 o Text reads: 26 o Text reads: Upper F e o Text reads: Upper Iron o Text reads: 55.9 • Box 3 o Text reads: 8 o Text reads: Upper O o Text reads: Upper Oxygen o Text reads: 16.0
TIM: These elements are all made of atoms.
MOBY: Beep?
TIM: Around 2,400 years ago, a Greek guy named Democritus argued that everything in the world was made up of particles so small that they could not be cut in half. He called these tiny things “atoms,” from the Greek word “atomos,” which means "indivisible."
A drawing of Democritus is shown on the left. On the right a series of solid rectangles divides repeatedly. A tall, single rectangle divides in the short direction, and the top half leaves the scene. The bottom half rotates and grows until it is identical to the original rectangle. Each new rectangle divides again, continuing the pattern for several cycles and giving the impression that the view is zooming in smaller and smaller portions. Eventually one of the lone rectangles does not divide, but shakes up and down. The label “atoms” appears on this final rectangle.
TIM: In the 1800s, another guy named John Dalton refined the idea with his theory that atoms are the smallest particle of an element that retains its chemical properties.
A sketched portrait of John Dalton appears on the right side of the screen. On the left side, a black lump that appears to be coal is shown.
Text reads: carbon
An atom of carbon is extracted from from the lump of coal. The atom is composed of central nucleus of solid orange and white spheres. Surrounding the central nucleus are two concentric, translucent blue spheres.
Text reads: still carbon
TIM: That means if you break apart an atom of an element like carbon, it’s not carbon any more.
The atom of carbon flashes and disappears from the scene.
MOBY: Beep?
TIM: What is it? Well, atoms are made up of even tinier subatomic particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Drawings of a proton, neutron and an electron are shown. All three are drawn as spheres. The proton is large and orange. The neutron is the same size as the proton, and white. The electron is smaller than the proton and neutron, and is colored yellow and appears to be glowing.
TIM: The atom's center, or nucleus, is a cluster of protons and neutrons.
The electron leaves the scene, and the proton and neutron move together. More protons and neutrons come in from outside the scene and form a cluster of four of each type.
TIM: Protons have a positive electrical charge, and neutrons have no electrical charge. The atom’s nucleus is held together by the strong force, which keeps the positively charged protons from repelling each other.
The nucleus contracts slightly and then re-expands. An inset drawing appears with two protons, each labeled with a plus symbol. The protons move apart towards the edges of the inset, but then stop. The inset moves out of the scene.
TIM: The nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of electrons moving near the speed of light.
The view zooms out so that the nucleus is a small portion of the screen. A large blue sphere fills the screen. The nucleus is still visible, at the center of the large sphere. A smaller blue sphere representing an electron flashes in and out of view, moving rapidly around the cloud when it is visible.
TIM: The electrons have a negative charge that attracts them to the protons, and they “live” in shells representing different energy levels.
An inset box shows an orange proton, labeled with a plus symbol and a yellow electron, labeled with a negative symbol. They start at the edges of the inset and move toward each other, but do not touch. The inset moved out of the screen.
TIM: On the periodic table, atoms are organized by their atomic number, which is really their number of protons or electrons.
The complete periodic table is shown again, and then a white outline rectangle indicates the view is zooming in on an upper right portion of the table. The upper portion shows part or all of the entries for 8 elements. A large white block arrow is pointing at content in the entry for carbon.
• Text reads: 6
• Text reads: Upper C
• Text reads: Upper Carbon •
Text reads: 12.0
The white arrow begins by pointing to the 6.
TIM: You can also find the atomic mass here, as well as the element’s symbol.
The block arrow moves as Tim speaks, indicating that the atomic mass is 12.0 and the symbol is Upper C.
TIM: I kind of think it’s amazing that the difference of a few little protons, electrons, and neutrons can produce such a variety of elements with completely different properties. A group of element names and representative illustrations appear around the screen while Tim is speaking.
• copper: a shiny, orange colored jagged object
• calcium: a white block
• carbon: a lump of coal
• gold: a shiny, yellow object
• iodine: a cluster of small purple shapes
• mercury: a shiny, metallic pool of liquid. • silicon: a jagged gray object
• sulphur: a solid yellow object
• hydrogen: no illustration.
TIM: Different types of atoms can bond together to make molecules. Water is a molecule. It’s two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, or H 2 O for short!
Two atoms of hydrogen and an atom of oxygen appear and move together until they touch. The atoms of hydrogen are each a single proton surrounded by an electron cloud represented by a large, translucent sphere. The oxygen atom has a nucleus with many protons and neutrons, and is surrounded by three large, translucent spheres. The atoms come together and a flash of light with a lightning bolt appears. After the atoms form a water molecule, the view zooms out and the fades to blue with an audible splashing sound.
Text reads: Upper H 2 Upper O.
TIM: You would not believe how small atoms are. It would take nearly ten million atoms just to cross this dot.
Tim and Moby are standing next to each other. Moby is holding up a piece of paper with a small dot in the center.
TIM: And the scale of the atom itself is even more ridiculous. If the nucleus was the size of an apple, the electrons would be five whole football fields away!
A nucleus consisting of multiple protons and neutrons is shown next to an apple of about the same size. Both are on field painted with white stripes oriented horizontally. The field continues into the horizon. The apple leaves the scene to the right, and then the view seems to move forward along the field, with new stripes growing in from the horizon and leaving at the bottom of the scene. A large number of stripes scroll though the scene, until the motion slows down and stops with Tim standing in front of one last stripe.
Tim gets hit in the head by a bright yellow ball labeled “electron.” The impact makes an audible thump. Tim falls down.
TIM: Ow!
TIM: That means all matter in the universe is mostly made of empty space, which, frankly, blows my mind.
The video shows an apple on a blank background. The view zooms in until the apple completely fills the screen. The screen goes dark briefly and then a few water molecules diagram grow in and leave the scene, as if the view is still zooming in to smaller details. The electron cloud of a single atom fills the view and then the screen goes dark again, until a nucleus zooms in from a dot in the center of the scene showing a cluster of protons and neutrons.
Tim is standing on the football field again, with a bandage on his forehead. He is smiling at first, but frowns when a football appears from the front of the scene and he catches it. Tim’s face shows a brief flash of panic before Moby enters the scene and tackles him.
TIM: Oof.
The scene flashes brightly before returning to the football field, where the football is rocking back and forth.