Atomic structure

Atoms are made up of 3 different parts:

• Protons
• Neutrons
• Electrons

The protons and neutrons are inside the neucleus. The electrons orbit the neucleus in layers called shells.

Atoms have a radius of about 1x10 to the power of -10. Or about 0.00000001cm. Imagine the mm size. So they're basicly really, really small.

Atoms are mostly empty space. The neuclus takes up 1/10,000 of the space. Electrons take up practically nothing.

Dimond is made of carbon. A dimond the size of a pea contains 10 thousand million million million atoms. Each carbon atom is bonded with four other carbon atoms making a giant lattice structure. This makes dimond quite hard. 

Proton: 

• Mass - 1
• Charge - +1

Neutron

• Mass - 1
• Charge - 0

Electron

• Mass - 0.0005
• Charge - -1

The atoms have an equal amount of protons and electrons, so atoms have no charge.

Z-----16

              C

A-----6

Z is the atomic number or proton number. This number shows which element it is.

A is the mass number or nucleon number. It's the number of neutrons + the number of protons.

The proton number will never change, but the atom can have a different number of neutrons. These atoms are known as isotopes. Isotopes tend to have the same chemical reaction because the proton and electron numbers don't change. However, they can alter the physical properties, like melting and boiling points. Natural smaples of elements are usually just isotopes mixed together.

The way the electrons are arranged is really important in figuring out the chemical properties of an atom. They're arragned at different distances from the neuclues. We call these 'energy levels'. The further away from the neuclues, the more powerful the energy level.

Electrons can move between different energy levels. Electromagnetic radiation can be used to excite electrons and make them move up into higher energy levels. Then when they calm down they move back to they're original state and emit electromagnetic radiation. The amount of electromagnetic radation released when electrons move down in energy level can be measured by flame tests. Light gets emitted when electrons move, the light is a different colour for each different electron. The colour depends on how much energy has been lost.

If an atom has a positive or negative electrical charge it is known as an atom. Atoms don't usually have a charge since they have the same number of protons and electrons. If there isn't 8 electrons on an atoms outer shell (aside from Hydrogen), the atom is unstable. Atoms like that become stable by either gaining or losing electrons through either ionic or covalent bonding. Then the atoms have a different number of protons to electrons, that gives them an overall charge and turns them into an ion.