Atoms Can Combine To Form

5. ELEMENTS AND ATOMS

by Maurice Goldsmith

An element is fabricated up of atoms of 1 kind simply. For case, a piece of copper (Cu) is made up of atoms which are all identical in chemic terms; the element Carbon is made upwardly of atoms with a distinct structure. When these atoms of the same or any kind combine they course molecules. Thus, 2 Hydrogen atoms combine to grade a Hydrogen molecule. Most atoms can also combine with atoms of different kinds to form compounds of molecules. An atom of Carbon will combine with two atoms of Oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO₂); or two atoms of Hydrogen volition combine with one cantlet of Oxygen to form h2o (H_two0). Notice that we take had to give specific numbers of atoms; also that, in combining, the elements themselves may change, and the properties of the products may exist amazingly different from those of the elements. For instance, Hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas, combines with some other gas, Oxygen, to form the liquid water; or the highly poisonous metallic Sodium (Na) combines with the equally poisonous gas Chlorine to course essential-to-life salt (NaCl).

To understand the elements nosotros must know about the atoms that make them up. An atom may be considered every bit made up of a fundamental nucleus, and revolving around it are electrons. The nucleus is fabricated upwardly of protons and neutrons. The proton has a positive electrical charge, the neutron has no electrical charge, and the electron has a negative charge. The number of protons in the atomic nucleus is equal to the number of electrons revolving effectually that nucleus. This means that the positive electric accuse is balanced past the negative. The atom is therefore electrically neutral. The atomic number states the number of protons (therefore, electrons) in an atom of that element. For instance, the atomic number of Carbon is vi: this means that there are six positively charged protons in the nucleus, and six negatively charged electrons whirling around.

The atomic weight is the relative weight of an cantlet of the element. At 1 stage this was compared with Hydrogen as unity, and then with Oxygen equally 16. Thus, as the cantlet of Helium has a weight of iv, the Oxygen cantlet is four times as heavy. The matter of the atom - in other words, its mass - is contained in the nucleus, which is extremely small. To take an instance, the size of a Carbon atom is nigh one-i hundred millionth of an inch. A pencil dot on a piece of paper contains more carbon atoms than there are people on globe. The bore of an cantlet is about ten yard times its nucleus, yet the latter has no less than 99^.9 per cent of the mass of the atom. The atoms which make up matter are mostly empty space.

(from The Young Scientist's Companion, Gift Press, London, 1961)

Atoms Can Combine To Form,

Source: http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/tewufs/tewufs5.htm

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