• derekabutton@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    For any in the comments because they are curious, no they do not. It’s not particularly exciting, but colors don’t work at that scale, since the wavelengths that we detect as colors are many orders of magnitudes larger than atoms.

    • prayer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well just because color doesn’t work at the atomic level doesn’t mean the atom is devoid of coloration. A pure bar of gold will look gold, and the only thing giving it that gold color is gold itself, would you not say that the atoms are gold colored?

      • Not_Alec_Baldwin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Color distinctly doesn’t work like that. It’s not a property of the atom.

        A single gold atom doesn’t absorb or reflect any light.

        Water appears clear but steam appears opaque despite being the same molecules.

        The are many things that impact how things interact with light.