Question: gabriel whats a atonom

Gabriel Gallardo answered on 8 Mar 2019: last edited 8 Mar 2019 4:07 pm

The atom is what we usually think of as the basic building block of matter (matter is the science-y word for ‘stuff’).

Atoms come in 100+ different flavors known as elements, you can see them all in the periodic table (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table ).

These elements can come together to make everyday stuff. For example, we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. A molecule of oxygen is made of two oxygen atoms, so we can write it as O2. A molecule of carbon dioxide is made of two oxygen atoms and one carbon atom, so we can write it as CO2.

Another example: What do plastic, wood, and your body have in common? They are all made of different combinations of (mostly) the same atoms: hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen!

So now you know you can use atoms to make other stuff, but what makes up atoms?

Atoms are made of three different particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. The protons and neutrons bunch up in the center of the atom, while the electrons go around this center; this is kind of like how planets go around the sun.

The number of protons in an atom tells you what element it is. If your atom has 1 proton, it’s hydrogen; if 2, helium; if 3, lithium; and so on. Atoms have the same number of electrons as they do protons.

The number of electrons and how the electrons are arranged changes how an atom interacts with other atoms, for example: does this element like to be alone or with other atoms? Does this element like to explode or do nothing? At what temperatures is this element a solid? liquid? gas?