Atom Needs 2 Billion Times Less Force To Move Than A Penny, IBM Discovers
Understanding the amount of energy required to move an atom is crucial if
scientists are to continue to make advances in atomic scale computing and
other nanotechnology applications.
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek
Feb. 22, 2008
URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801385
In a scientific first that could pave the way for breakthroughs in nanoscale
computing, researchers at IBM have successfully measured the precise amount
of force needed to move a single atom, the company announced Friday.
Not surprisingly, it isn't much.
Using a device called a sensitive atomic force microscope, scientists at
IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose discovered that moving an atom
across a copper surface requires 17 piconewtons. By contrast, the force
needed to raise a copper penny is, at 30 billion piconewtons, 2 billion
times greater.
