• Question: What is an atom

    Asked by cosmin to Ben, Jony, Katharine, Mark, Peter on 21 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      A collection of particles (natures building blocks) held together by different forces of Nature (the rule book for how these building blocks behave).

      Most of the atom lies in the very centre in what is called the nucleus – here there are particles with positive electric charge called protons and particle with no electric charge called neutrons – so the nucleus has an overall positive electric charge. To stop the protons from flying apart with the repulsive electromagnetic force the string nuclear force sticks the protons and neutrons together.

      Around the nucleus are a haze of electrons which have a negative electric charge. These electrons orbit the nucleus because they are attracted to to opposite, positive, charge of the nucleus.

      You can’t split an electron but protons and neutrons are themselves just bags of three smaller particles called quarks. These quarks are also held together by the strong nuclear force to make the protons and neutrons.

    • Photo: Peter Williams

      Peter Williams answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      it’s the smallest quantity of an element that is chemically identifiable as that element.

    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      An Atom is one of the building blocks of everything you see around you. They are incredibly tiny, less than one millionth of a millimetre across.

      There are a fixed number of different atoms, and all of them can be found on the Periodic table (like this one) http://www.webelements.com/

      Most things are a combination of atoms , Like us for example, but some things are made up of just 1 type of atom, like aluminium or gold for example.

      Hope this helps

      Mark

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