Atoms

The middle of an atom is called a nucleus and its made up of 2 types of particles

1. The positively charged PROTONS 2. The uncharged NEUTRONS

The number of protons tells us what kind we have: whether it’s a hydrogen atom, a helium atom, a lithium atom and
so on. Basically the number of protons an atom has is its personality

Inside the nucleus is tightly packed, however the electrons do their own thing on the outskirts, kind of like orbiting
the nucleus but they do it in a orderly fashion, with electrons only staying within a certain electron ‘shell’

Negatively charged electrons are attracted to positively charged electrons, this is called electrostatic attraction which
is the reason why atoms can hold themselves together.

All electrons orbit in specific rings called electron shells which look kind of like Saturn’s rings.

THE 2,8,8 RULE.

The first electron shell can hold up to 2 electrons and is the closest to the nucleus. The second and third shell can
hold up to 8 electrons each and are a little further away.

Every atom can have a different amount of electrons in total, but in a normal atom, there are equal numbers of
protons and electrons.

Because the positive and negative charges have the same number so atoms are neutral, so the charges are balanced.
The amount of protons depends on the element or type of atom, and that means all uncharged atoms of the same
element will have the same number of electrons.

For example, nitrogen (N) is number 7 in the periodic table and has 7 protons and 7 electrons.

THE PERIODC TABLE

Chemical symbols: these are just shortened names for the element

Atomic number: The number is the top left corner tell you how many protons and electrons are in the atom

Mass number: the smaller number in the bottom tell you how many particles are in the nucleus

Neutrons=mass number-atomic number

On the periodic table its organized into rows, left to right called periods and going up and down is called groups.