Describe the structure of an atom.
Describe the structure of an atom
The atom is composed of three basic subatomic particles, namely the electron, the proton and the neutron; the characteristics of which are given in a table below:
The three main subatomic particles.
|
Particle |
Symbols |
Charge |
Mass |
| Electron | e | -1 | 1/1837 |
| Proton | p | +1 | 1 |
| Neutron | n | No charge | 1 |
All atoms of the same element contain the same number of protons (usually equal to the number of electrons). The number of protons in an atom is characteristic of an element and is called the atomic number. The atomic mass is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in an atom (element). Atoms with the same atomic number but different atomic masses (due to the difference in the number of neutrons in an atom) are called isotopes. It is now known that many more sub-atomic particles exist, e.g. the positron, the neutrino, the hyperon, etc., but in Chemistry only those listed in table 1.1. generally, need to be considered.
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