Space filled by positive charges in atom if it were as big as a sports arena?

P

Paul

New member
If I were to scale up an atom until it were the size of a sports arena, the space filled by the positive charges inside the atom (according to the work of Ernest Rutherford early in this century) would be:

A. as big as the entire stadium (and very thinly spread out)
B. as big as the space filled by all the negative charges (that's why the atom is neutral)
C. very small (perhaps the size of a soccer ball) and in the middle
D. an extremely thin layer spread completely around the outer walls of the stadium
E. this question cannot be answered (even roughly) without knowing which kind of atom we are discussing
 
C. Very small and in the middle

The nucleus of an atom is tiny compared to the size of its electron shell. No matter what atom we are talking about, the relative size of the nucleous compared to the rest of the atom is very similar.
 
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