A SIMILARITY IN FUNCTION

The correspondence between the sun and the atomic nucleus goes beyond the characteristic radius of each and also pertains to their behavior. Under ordinary conditions, electrons orbit around the nucleus.

Just as the atomic nucleus serves as the nucleus of an atomic system, so the sun serves as the nucleus of our solar system. This analogy was not lost to the physicists who first began to study the behavior of atoms. The first atomic models compared an atom to a miniature solar system: the orbiting electrons were like orbiting planets and the nucleus was like the sun. Later, a more abstract model was developed involving quantum wave function—but the classical analogy is still taught in high schools all around the world.

This solar-nuclear correspondence presents a concrete example of the principle “as above, so below.” The behavior of the solar whole may not be exactly the same as the behavior of the solar parts, but the two behaviors correspond to one another.