Quantum mechanical model?
Answer:
Ok. Mr. Atom is a real small guy who is in everything you see. Ms. Electron runs around and around Mr. Nucleus and both live inside of Mr. Atom so they are even smaller. Ms. Electron stays within an orbit just like the planets around the sun. Ahh, I give up.
An electron spinning its orbital around the nucleus of an atom forms an electron cloud. That is we can measure the electron's position or it's momentum at any given time, but not both. This is called the Uncertainty Principal.
As an electron gains energy it can instantaneously jump to a higher energy level. That is the electron, which has mass, disappears, and instantly reappears at the higher level (and absorbs a photon in the process). The electron doesn't just move up to the higher level. It de-materializes and rematerializes. When the electron drops from it's higher level to it's lower level it releases a photon (i.e. gives off light). This is what causes a fire to glow, or a light to shine.
Of course quantum mechanics is responsible for holding the nucleus of an atom together (despite the fact that positive protons repel each other). And quantum mechanics tells us that protons are made of quarks - and all elementary particles are made of strings that resonate at different frequencies and have differing spins.
I'm not a physicist so I'm not a real expert at this. I'm just trying to remember what I studied in the modern physics classes I took.
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