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One thing that I don't quite get. If a single atom is the smallest thing (other than quantum foam etc), then what is it resting on in this movie. IE what is the
by jv22222 9y ago
One thing that I don't quite get. If a single atom is the smallest thing (other than quantum foam etc), then what is it resting on in this movie. IE what is the background made of?
- 21 9y agoI presume it's sitting on a flat layer of other atoms, but they are picturing only the top layer, kind of how a focused photo has a blurry background.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- burkaman 9y agoAtoms aren't the smallest thing, but that's sort of irrelevant, because this was "filmed" with a scanning tunneling microscope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope It's not like normal photography, it's more of a visualization of an electrical current sensor. The background is just the area of the plane they were scanning that didn't have any atoms.
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y agoOther atoms, but further away. Effectively the background is blurred because it's out of focus. The depth of field is thin enough that this works. (These are analogies. It's not strictly correct.)
- bdamm 9y agoIt's so far from correct as to be not a useful analogy. The real question is, how is the microscope's output converted into a visual picture? Hint, it isn't by lensing light. Thus there is no "focus" to be out of.
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y agoAn atomic force microscope produces images by sensing atoms with a probe. It scans in a planar layer, analogous to a very narrow depth of field for a film camera. The background atoms do exert force on the probe, but much more weakly.
- tyingq 9y agoThe background is a copper plate. "Copper plate: The scientists used copper 111 as the surface of the animation — the same material they used 10 years ago when they built the first computer that performed digital computation operations. Carbon monoxide (CO): ok The scientists chose carbon monoxide molecules to move around the plate. Carbon monoxide has one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, stacked on top of each other." http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/madewithatoms.shtml#fbid=87N25qtYtKA http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/madewithatoms.shtml#fbi... I assume focus / depth of field is why the surface looks smooth. Or whatever the equivalent of that is for a scanning/tunnelling microscope.
- thatcherc 9y agoOne thing I don't understand with that quote: it seems to imply this video was made only ten years after "first computer that performed digital computation operations". Is this a typo in the original or are they referring to something else?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tyingq 9y agoProbably something like logic gates assembled by moving atoms around?
- dogma1138 9y agoSmoothness is likely due to the grounding of the backplate. If anything I would posture that they’ve filmed the backplate and the A atoms are the shadow from the scattering of the electrons that didn’t hit the backplate.