An atom is usually diagramatically shown as small spherical electrons orbiting a nucleus of spherical protons and neutrons. What does an atom look like in real life?
They look fuzzy. You can’t really “see” into the heart of an atom. When dealing with these concepts “common sense” and everyday terminology fail us completely. The photon (light package) that you would need to “see” an electron say would disturb the electron so much that there is no useful data obtainable such as an image. The orbital model you mention is WAY outdated. It is Rutherford’s Model and it can’t work! When you do the calculations the electrons just fall into the nucleus which of course they don’t do in actuality. Someone mentioned orbits this is getting there. Electrons really exist as probability waves. The quantized (i.e. they have specific quantities they can take not any old value!) orbit locations are the most likely position for the electron to be in but they could be anywhere in the universe. Electrons have an associated wave function which means the electron could be anywhere but is most likely to be found in the orbitals mentioned. Also the nature of quantum reality
