There are striking similarities between how elementary particles come together to form atoms, molecules and eventually various materials and how a family, a village and then a society is established from a collection of people. The concept of viewing members of a society as atoms is known as “Social Atomism” in theories of social studies. My analysis generalizes the concept further by going into the internal structure of atoms, discusses different types of social structures and points out its limitations. Hydrogen atoms have the simplest atomic structure consisting of a proton and an electron carrying opposite charges. I would like to suggest that it is similar to a committed couple. An ideal couple involves a man and a woman, and no other person.

The woman carrying heavier “weight” at the centre of domestic life would be like the proton, at the centre of a hydrogen atom with larger mass. The man’s activities revolve around the woman like an electron rotating around the proton. Just like the electrostatic attraction between the proton and electron, there is an attraction between the man and the woman. The electron tends to fly off because of the centrifugal force, but the attraction of the proton keeps it in orbit. At the same time, because of this centrifugal force, the attraction does not pull the electron into the proton causing a collapse of the atom. A man has a tendency to explore activities outside the “home”, but it is the woman’s attraction that always brings him back.

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However, these outside interests keep the man at an optimum distance from the woman and he does not cling to the woman all the time. On a microscopic scale, the only force in a hydrogen atom is the attractive force between the proton and electron; there is not even any frictional force. The same is true for an ideal couple–no source of friction or interference! Hydrogen atoms are the only system in physics that is exactly solvable in both classical and quantum mechanics, and hence predictable. The same holds true for a committed couple: they are predictable. A hydrogen atom can be raised into an “excited” state by absorption of energy. The excited states are characterized by electron orbits further away from the proton. Similarly, even an ideal couple can go into an excited state whereby the man and the woman drift further apart.

This external energy they absorb could be some excitement – usually disruptive in nature – caused by joy, grief, jealousy, greed etc. The hydrogen atom can release the energy and return to the “ground state”; so can the couple, once they come to terms with this excitation. Break-up of a committed couple would be analogous to ionization of the hydrogen atom into a proton and an electron. A large amount of external influence is necessary in either case. The ionization energy of a hydrogen atom is indeed rather large. One can extend this analogy to more complex atoms and molecules and corresponding groups of people. A hydrogen molecule is a pair of hydrogen atoms held together by a (covalent) bond formed by overlapping electrons from two atoms.

It would be like two couples living close to each other where the main interaction is between the males – perhaps through various activities and discussions. The females remain relatively independent and separate. We can also introduce the concept of an asexual human staying with the woman in the hub of the house, perhaps as a domestic help, as an analogous figure to a neutron. A heavy hydrogen atom will have one neutron and one proton in the centre with an electron orbiting them, much like a home with a man, woman and a domestic help! A Helium atom with two protons and two neutrons in the nucleus and two electrons orbiting them might represent a joint family of say, two brothers, with their respective wives and domestic help and served by the “swirling” activities of both brothers. Bigger molecules with many protons, neutrons and electrons and ionic bonds would resemble large joint families or communes of the hippie era where there are various “sharing” and “exchange” of men going on between the women. Despite this “open” lifestyle, members of each commune tend to associate themselves with that commune. Bulk material is composed of molecules and society at large can be thought of as a collection of clans or communes. In the case of an insulator, the force between molecules which holds the material together is dipoledipole in nature (like the force between tiny magnets).

Similarly, in a commune women and men occasionally segregate in separate groups, giving it a magnetlike dipolar characteristic. Each such group from one commune might be interested in exploring groups of opposite sex in a neighbouring commune; this attraction is not strong since there are plenty of activities within each commune, but enough to hold neighbouring communes together. The peripheral male members (outer electrons) would also tend to keep men from the neighbouring commune at a distance and not allow the two communes to collapse into one. A maze of communes formed this way would be like an insulator. Making passage through this maze is not simple for a man just like an insulator is not a medium for easy travel of electrons! Metal is a substance where the positive heavy nuclei are arranged in a fixed crystalline structure and the negative electrons swarm around them like a sea of electrons.

The analogy that comes to mind is a complex where each nucleus represents a centre run by women (along with domestic help) for the entertainment of men. Electrons represent migrant men, who come and go at their will from one centre to another and are not attached to any complex. Just like it is easy for a “free” electron to move through a metal, it is easy for a “free” man to go through these complexes without any hindrance. Since a molecule represents a joint family, a gaseous substance is simply analogous to a society sparsely populated by joint families who do not interact much among themselves. At the early stages of evolution of the universe all matter was in the form of gas and similarly formation of society starts with these sparsely distributed families or clans who have enough “energy” or resources to remain fiercely independent. However, as their energy levels subside (like cooling of gases) they feel the need to interact and move closer to each other thus making the transition to a society where people are interdependent.

We know that protons within a nucleus are held together tightly, despite the electrostatic repulsion between them. The reason is the attractive nuclear force which is much stronger than electrostatic repulsive force. Similarly, the women living in the same household seem to have a special bond, even if they have elements of rivalry and dispute among themselves and they can happily live together because of this strong bond. Men do not experience nor understand such a bond, just like the electrons which do not experience nuclear force. In conclusion, there are two key building blocks in both cases: an attractive force between elements of opposite sex/charge and a propensity for sharing. However, note that our model is not an exact representation because elementary particles do not undergo births or deaths. In other words, it represents a society of immortal people.

(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America.)