yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Protons, neutrons, and electrons in atoms | High school chemistry | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Everything in our world is made up of atoms. Yep, everything from the air we breathe to the water we drink, even the materials inside our cell phones. But what are atoms exactly? What's inside of these atoms? What makes an atom an atom?

Atoms are tiny particles that are basic units of matter, like building blocks. But atoms themselves are made up of even smaller subatomic particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. Let's take a look at the simplified diagram to learn more about these subatomic particles and the structure of an atom.

In the center of an atom, we have the nucleus, which is composed of protons and neutrons. Outside the nucleus, we have the electron cloud. This is where electrons are most likely to be found. I've drawn the nucleus much larger than it really is, but an atom's electron cloud can be 100,000 times larger than its nucleus. So, the electron cloud actually makes up most of the atom's volume.

Protons, neutrons, and electrons differ in terms of their charge and mass. Let's take a look at charge first. Protons have a positive charge of +1, and electrons have a negative charge of -1. These charges are equal and opposite, so when protons and electrons are paired in atoms, their charges cancel. Neutrons have no charge, which means they are neutral.

What about mass? The unit we use to express the masses of subatomic particles is the unified atomic mass unit, abbreviated as U. Protons and neutrons have a similar mass, about 1 U. In comparison, electrons have a mass of about 0.0005 U, which makes them roughly 2,000 times smaller than either a proton or a neutron. This means that nearly all the mass of an atom resides in the nucleus and not in the electron cloud.

Atoms make up everything in our world. Even though the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the cell phones we use all look really different from one another, the atoms that make up these things are all composed of the same subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons.

More Articles

View All
Should You Go To University?
I would just say that if you are self-aware enough to realize that you’re sort of middle of the road and you’re not that good, then sure, go to university, get your stamp, try not to be brainwashed, and use it to at least get your first job. But if you’r…
The Parker Solar Probe - Smarter Every Day 198
Have you ever figured something else, and you tried to explain it to someone else and they just didn’t believe you? This is the story about a man named Eugene Parker who, in 1958, wrote a paper about solar winds. NASA has named about 20 spacecraft after d…
Jack Black Meets a Young Climate Activist | Years of Living Dangerously
[Music] I want you to meet my protege, Delaney. Hello Delany! I’ve heard so much about you. Have a seat. Delany Reynolds, 16-year-old budding scientist. Somebody who found out about climate change and sea level rise, and she’s really engaged and she’s …
Graphing hundredths from 0 to 0.1 | Math | 4th grade | Khan Academy
Graph 0.04 on the number line. So here we have this number line that goes from 0 to 0.1, or 1⁄10. Between 0 and 1⁄10, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 equal spaces. Each of these spaces represents 1⁄10 of the distance. It’s 1 out of 10 equal spaces,…
The Psychology of Narcissism [Traits, Symptoms, Origins & How to Protect Yourself]
Some experts call them inhuman, along with psychopaths and sociopaths, because of their significant lack of empathy and immense capacity for destruction. They don’t fight shy of systematic abuse and often leave a trail of misery when they move from prey t…
Projectile motion graphs | Two-dimensional motion | AP Physics 1 | Khan Academy
So in each of these pictures, we have a different scenario. We have someone standing at the edge of a cliff on Earth, and in this first scenario, they are launching a projectile up into the air. In this one, they’re just throwing it straight out. They’re …