4 ms·
A Better Way to Picture Atoms
- iaw 5y agoI appreciate the effort but I think the fundamental challenge with "picturing" an atom is that, at that scale, visual information is no longer useful.
- mlok 5y agoIt is a shortcut for the imagination. (For people less trained, for example) From there it may be easier / quicker to understand how all this works. From an educational point of view it may therefore be useful.
- akomtu 5y agoA fundamental restriction of our mind is that it's all about shapes. The atom is where we meet a shapeless thing for the first time - the electron - and I think this is why all attempts to explain electron orbitals resort to nondescript formulas.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoMy favorite: adaptively sampled distance fields It helps with molecules as well: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/molecular-morphing https://www.americanscientist.org/article/molecular-morphing I wish it were a more common render option though…
- canadianfella 5y agoHelps in what way?