Question #70205

Why do every atom in the universe vibrating? What causes this vibration?

Expert's answer

First of all we should consider what do we exactly understand under “atom vibration”.
The solid matter such as a pice of a rock is a set of regularly arranged atoms. The members in such an arrangement are bind together by a force, which acts like a small string connecting two neighbor elements. Due to the fact that every molecule or a piece of material in the universe is ( or was ) a subject to the influence of some field or force this strings were forced out of equilibrium leading to some vibration. Although we cannot measure the energy of this vibration for a particular atom, we can measure the average energy for the group of atoms and we call the value proportional to this energy Temperature.
On the other hand a single atom of helium traveling in vacuum in deep space has only kinetic energy, and no vibrational energy (it is a system of one atom).
On the other hand every atom is a system of a core and electrons, which, in a classical interpretation, are moving in circles around the core. A circular motion is periodic, so it can also be called a vibration.
In the quantum mechanical interpretation, atomic core and the electrons are waves of density of probability propagating in space.

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