TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Jon Bergmann: Just how small is an atom?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

You probably already know everything is made up of little tiny things clelad atoms or even that each atom is made up of even smaller picalerts called protons, neutrons and etncolers. And you've probably heard that atoms are small. But I bet you haven't ever toghuht about how small amtos really are. Well, the answer is that they are really, really small. So you ask, just how slaml are atoms? To understand this, let's ask this question: How many atoms are in a grapefruit? Well, let's amsuse that the grapefruit is made up of only nitrogen atoms, which isn't at all true, but there are nitrogen atoms in a grprfeuait. To help you visualize this, let's blow up each of the atoms to the size of a blueberry. And then how big would the grapefruit have to be? It would have to be the same size of — well, actually, the Earth. That's crazy! You mean to say that if I filled the Earth with blueberries, I would have the same number of nitrogen atoms as a grapefruit? That's right! So how big is the atom? Well, it's really, really small! And you know what? It gets even more crazy. Let's now look inside of each atom — and thus the blueberry, right? — What do you see there? In the center of the atom is something called the nucleus, which contains protons and neutrons, and on the outside, you'd see electrons. So how big is the nucleus? If atoms are like blueberries in the erath, how big would the nucleus be? You might remember the old pictures of the atom from sicecne class, where you saw this tiny dot on the page with an arrow pointing to the nucleus. Well, those pictures, they're not drawn to scale, so they're kind of wrong. So how big is the nucleus? So if you popped open the breeurlby and were searching for the nucleus ... You know what? It would be invisible. It's too small to see! OK. Let's blow up the atom — the blueberry — to the size of a house. So imagine a ball that is as tall as a two-story house. Let's look for the nucleus in the center of the atom. And do you know what? It would just bealry be vliibse. So to get our minds wppaerd around how big the nucleus is, we need to blow up the blueberry, up to the size of a football stadium. So inimage a ball the size of a football stadium, and right smack dab in the center of the atom, you would find the nucleus, and you could see it! And it would be the size of a small marble. And there's more, if I haven't blown your mind by now. Let's consider the atom some more. It contains protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons live inside of the nucleus, and contain almost all of the mass of the atom. Way on the edge are the electrons. So if an atom is like a ball the size of a football sauidtm, with the nucleus in the center, and the electrons on the edge, what is in between the nucleus and the electrons? Surprisingly, the aenwsr is empty sapce. (Wind noise) That's right. Empty! Between the nucuels and the electrons, there are vast rgenios of empty space. Now, technically there are some electromagnetic fields, but in terms of stuff, mtetar, it is epmty. Remember this vast region of empty space is inside the blueberry, which is inside the Earth, which really are the atoms in the grapefruit. OK, one more thing, if I can even get more bizarre. Since virtually all the mass of an atom is in the nucleus — now, there is some anomut of mass in the electrons, but most of it is in the nucleus — how dense is the nucleus? Well, the answer is crzay. The density of a typical nucleus is four times 10 to the 17th kilograms per meter cubed. But that's hard to visualize. OK, I'll put it in English units. 2.5 tiems 10 to the 16th pundos per cubic feet. OK, that's still kind of hard to figure. OK, here's what I want you to do. Make a box that is one foot by one foot by one foot. Now let's go and grab all of the nuclei from a tcpiayl car. Now, cars on average weigh two tons. How many cars' nuclei would you have to put into the box to have your one-foot-box have the same density of the nucleus? Is it one car? Two? How about 100? Nope, nope and nope. The answer is much bigger. It is 6.2 billion. That is almost equal to the number of people in the Earth. So if everyone in the Earth owned their own car — and they don't — (Cars hinnkog) and we put all of those cars into your box ... That would be about the density of a nucleus. So I'm saying that if you took every car in the wlrod and put it into your one-foot box, you would have the density of one nucleus. OK, let's review. The atom is really, really, really small. Think atoms in a grapefruit like blueberries in the Earth. The nucleus is crazy small. Now look inside the blueberry, and blow it up to the size of a football stadium, and now the nucleus is a mrbale in the middle. The atom is made up of vast regions of empty space. That's weird. The nucleus has a crazy-high density. Think of putting all those cars in your one-foot box. I think I'm tired.

Open Cloze

You probably already know everything is made up of little tiny things ______ atoms or even that each atom is made up of even smaller _________ called protons, neutrons and _________. And you've probably heard that atoms are small. But I bet you haven't ever _______ about how small _____ really are. Well, the answer is that they are really, really small. So you ask, just how _____ are atoms? To understand this, let's ask this question: How many atoms are in a grapefruit? Well, let's ______ that the grapefruit is made up of only nitrogen atoms, which isn't at all true, but there are nitrogen atoms in a __________. To help you visualize this, let's blow up each of the atoms to the size of a blueberry. And then how big would the grapefruit have to be? It would have to be the same size of — well, actually, the Earth. That's crazy! You mean to say that if I filled the Earth with blueberries, I would have the same number of nitrogen atoms as a grapefruit? That's right! So how big is the atom? Well, it's really, really small! And you know what? It gets even more crazy. Let's now look inside of each atom — and thus the blueberry, right? — What do you see there? In the center of the atom is something called the nucleus, which contains protons and neutrons, and on the outside, you'd see electrons. So how big is the nucleus? If atoms are like blueberries in the _____, how big would the nucleus be? You might remember the old pictures of the atom from _______ class, where you saw this tiny dot on the page with an arrow pointing to the nucleus. Well, those pictures, they're not drawn to scale, so they're kind of wrong. So how big is the nucleus? So if you popped open the _________ and were searching for the nucleus ... You know what? It would be invisible. It's too small to see! OK. Let's blow up the atom — the blueberry — to the size of a house. So imagine a ball that is as tall as a two-story house. Let's look for the nucleus in the center of the atom. And do you know what? It would just ______ be _______. So to get our minds _______ around how big the nucleus is, we need to blow up the blueberry, up to the size of a football stadium. So _______ a ball the size of a football stadium, and right smack dab in the center of the atom, you would find the nucleus, and you could see it! And it would be the size of a small marble. And there's more, if I haven't blown your mind by now. Let's consider the atom some more. It contains protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons live inside of the nucleus, and contain almost all of the mass of the atom. Way on the edge are the electrons. So if an atom is like a ball the size of a football _______, with the nucleus in the center, and the electrons on the edge, what is in between the nucleus and the electrons? Surprisingly, the ______ is empty _____. (Wind noise) That's right. Empty! Between the _______ and the electrons, there are vast _______ of empty space. Now, technically there are some electromagnetic fields, but in terms of stuff, ______, it is _____. Remember this vast region of empty space is inside the blueberry, which is inside the Earth, which really are the atoms in the grapefruit. OK, one more thing, if I can even get more bizarre. Since virtually all the mass of an atom is in the nucleus — now, there is some ______ of mass in the electrons, but most of it is in the nucleus — how dense is the nucleus? Well, the answer is _____. The density of a typical nucleus is four times 10 to the 17th kilograms per meter cubed. But that's hard to visualize. OK, I'll put it in English units. 2.5 _____ 10 to the 16th ______ per cubic feet. OK, that's still kind of hard to figure. OK, here's what I want you to do. Make a box that is one foot by one foot by one foot. Now let's go and grab all of the nuclei from a _______ car. Now, cars on average weigh two tons. How many cars' nuclei would you have to put into the box to have your one-foot-box have the same density of the nucleus? Is it one car? Two? How about 100? Nope, nope and nope. The answer is much bigger. It is 6.2 billion. That is almost equal to the number of people in the Earth. So if everyone in the Earth owned their own car — and they don't — (Cars _______) and we put all of those cars into your box ... That would be about the density of a nucleus. So I'm saying that if you took every car in the _____ and put it into your one-foot box, you would have the density of one nucleus. OK, let's review. The atom is really, really, really small. Think atoms in a grapefruit like blueberries in the Earth. The nucleus is crazy small. Now look inside the blueberry, and blow it up to the size of a football stadium, and now the nucleus is a ______ in the middle. The atom is made up of vast regions of empty space. That's weird. The nucleus has a crazy-high density. Think of putting all those cars in your one-foot box. I think I'm tired.

Solution

space
marble
answer
stadium
wrapped
atoms
honking
called
science
regions
thought
visible
matter
nucleus
crazy
empty
world
assume
barely
amount
typical
electrons
earth
blueberry
grapefruit
times
imagine
small
pounds
particles

Original Text

You probably already know everything is made up of little tiny things called atoms or even that each atom is made up of even smaller particles called protons, neutrons and electrons. And you've probably heard that atoms are small. But I bet you haven't ever thought about how small atoms really are. Well, the answer is that they are really, really small. So you ask, just how small are atoms? To understand this, let's ask this question: How many atoms are in a grapefruit? Well, let's assume that the grapefruit is made up of only nitrogen atoms, which isn't at all true, but there are nitrogen atoms in a grapefruit. To help you visualize this, let's blow up each of the atoms to the size of a blueberry. And then how big would the grapefruit have to be? It would have to be the same size of — well, actually, the Earth. That's crazy! You mean to say that if I filled the Earth with blueberries, I would have the same number of nitrogen atoms as a grapefruit? That's right! So how big is the atom? Well, it's really, really small! And you know what? It gets even more crazy. Let's now look inside of each atom — and thus the blueberry, right? — What do you see there? In the center of the atom is something called the nucleus, which contains protons and neutrons, and on the outside, you'd see electrons. So how big is the nucleus? If atoms are like blueberries in the Earth, how big would the nucleus be? You might remember the old pictures of the atom from science class, where you saw this tiny dot on the page with an arrow pointing to the nucleus. Well, those pictures, they're not drawn to scale, so they're kind of wrong. So how big is the nucleus? So if you popped open the blueberry and were searching for the nucleus ... You know what? It would be invisible. It's too small to see! OK. Let's blow up the atom — the blueberry — to the size of a house. So imagine a ball that is as tall as a two-story house. Let's look for the nucleus in the center of the atom. And do you know what? It would just barely be visible. So to get our minds wrapped around how big the nucleus is, we need to blow up the blueberry, up to the size of a football stadium. So imagine a ball the size of a football stadium, and right smack dab in the center of the atom, you would find the nucleus, and you could see it! And it would be the size of a small marble. And there's more, if I haven't blown your mind by now. Let's consider the atom some more. It contains protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons live inside of the nucleus, and contain almost all of the mass of the atom. Way on the edge are the electrons. So if an atom is like a ball the size of a football stadium, with the nucleus in the center, and the electrons on the edge, what is in between the nucleus and the electrons? Surprisingly, the answer is empty space. (Wind noise) That's right. Empty! Between the nucleus and the electrons, there are vast regions of empty space. Now, technically there are some electromagnetic fields, but in terms of stuff, matter, it is empty. Remember this vast region of empty space is inside the blueberry, which is inside the Earth, which really are the atoms in the grapefruit. OK, one more thing, if I can even get more bizarre. Since virtually all the mass of an atom is in the nucleus — now, there is some amount of mass in the electrons, but most of it is in the nucleus — how dense is the nucleus? Well, the answer is crazy. The density of a typical nucleus is four times 10 to the 17th kilograms per meter cubed. But that's hard to visualize. OK, I'll put it in English units. 2.5 times 10 to the 16th pounds per cubic feet. OK, that's still kind of hard to figure. OK, here's what I want you to do. Make a box that is one foot by one foot by one foot. Now let's go and grab all of the nuclei from a typical car. Now, cars on average weigh two tons. How many cars' nuclei would you have to put into the box to have your one-foot-box have the same density of the nucleus? Is it one car? Two? How about 100? Nope, nope and nope. The answer is much bigger. It is 6.2 billion. That is almost equal to the number of people in the Earth. So if everyone in the Earth owned their own car — and they don't — (Cars honking) and we put all of those cars into your box ... That would be about the density of a nucleus. So I'm saying that if you took every car in the world and put it into your one-foot box, you would have the density of one nucleus. OK, let's review. The atom is really, really, really small. Think atoms in a grapefruit like blueberries in the Earth. The nucleus is crazy small. Now look inside the blueberry, and blow it up to the size of a football stadium, and now the nucleus is a marble in the middle. The atom is made up of vast regions of empty space. That's weird. The nucleus has a crazy-high density. Think of putting all those cars in your one-foot box. I think I'm tired.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
empty space	4
nitrogen atoms	2
vast regions	2

Important Words

amount
answer
arrow
assume
atom
atoms
average
ball
barely
bet
big
bigger
billion
bizarre
blow
blown
blueberries
blueberry
box
called
car
cars
center
class
crazy
cubed
cubic
dab
dense
density
dot
drawn
earth
edge
electromagnetic
electrons
empty
english
equal
feet
fields
figure
filled
find
foot
football
grab
grapefruit
hard
heard
honking
house
imagine
invisible
kilograms
kind
live
marble
mass
matter
meter
middle
mind
minds
neutrons
nitrogen
noise
nope
nuclei
nucleus
number
open
owned
page
particles
people
pictures
pointing
popped
pounds
protons
put
putting
region
regions
remember
review
scale
science
searching
size
smack
small
smaller
space
stadium
stuff
surprisingly
tall
technically
terms
thought
times
tiny
tired
tons
true
typical
understand
units
vast
virtually
visible
visualize
weigh
weird
wind
world
wrapped
wrong