Atomic Structure

The Atomic Structure

Firstly: What is an Atom? It is the smallest unit of an element, which has the properties of an element.

Originally in the 19th century, scientists believed that atoms were hard, solid particles that resembled tiny marbles. However, this was proved to be wrong in the early 20th century as experiments revealed what atoms really were.

Facts about atoms:

-all atoms are built from 3 particles: the electron, neutron and proton

-The centre of the atom is called a nucleus and it contains the protons and neutrons.

-Protons and neutrons have almost the same mass of 1.

-Protons have a positive charge, but neutrons are neutral (self explanitory:D)

-more than 99% of an atom is empty space with moving electrons.

-Electrons have a mass of 2000 times less than that of a proton or neutron.

-electrons have a negative charge.
-An atom always has the same amount of protons and electrons.

Atomic