 |
The Atom | ||||||||
|
An atom is the smallest unit of matter recognizable as an element. The word atom comes frome the Greek word "atomos," which means "indivisible." The first person to use the word "atom" to describe matter was the Greek philosopher Democritus. Democritus lived in Greece, and lived from 460 to 370 B.C. An
atom is made of three basic parcticles, which are
neutrons, protons, and electrons. Neutrons have no
electric charge, protons have a positive charge, and
electrons have a negative charge. Protons and neutrons
are in the center of the atom, or the nucleus. A neutral
atom has a relationship between the electron and proton
because since one parcticle is positive and the other is
negative, they are attracted to each other like a magnet.
This is how atoms stay together. An ion is an atom that gained or lost an electron. The two types of ions are negative ions and positive ions. Since electrons have a negative charge and protons have a positive charge, and in an atom there is the same amount of electrons as protons, the atom is a neutral atom. When an atom loses an electron it becomes a positive ion because now there are more positive charges than negative charges. When an atom gains an electron it becomes a negative ion because it has more negative charges than positive charges. The Atom © 1997 Jacob Eapen. |