3 – THE DIFFERENT “LOOK” OF SNELSON’S ATOM
We are used to atoms represented either with tiny glowing electrons racing about, or by electrical clouds surrounding the nucleus. Unlike conventional pictures, the orbits of the Snelson’s model do not intersect of overlap one another they are either great circles or small circles which appear on imaginary spherical shells.

“Representations of the charge cloud model are often likened to clusters of balloons. My atom bears resemblance to the Chinese ivory carvings which are spheres within spheres.”

GEOMETRY AND FORM

OF CIRCLES ON SPHERES

A GREAT CIRCLE is the largest circle which can be drawn on a sphere. It goes around the girth like the Earth’s equator.

RANDOM sizes of smaller circles which do not overlap can be placed on a sphere in an infinite number of ways.

IDENTICALLY sized small circles which do not overlap can be placed on a sphere in many symmetrical arrangements. Regardless of the size of the circles, they lie with their edges all at the same distance from their sphere’s center.

Within this geometry there are many ways that these spherical skeletons can join with one another to generate patterns of three-dimensional, space-filling order.

With all of its endless combinations, this circle-on-sphere geometry makes up the general form of Snelson’s model of the atom.
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