What Are Atoms Made Up Of?
Atoms are the building blocks for everything on earth and combine to form compounds. For example, salt, or NaCl, is made up of a sodium atom and a potassium atom.
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Composition
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Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons can be subdivided into quarks and gluons.
Size
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Atoms are so small that if you had one atom of gold for every second since the Big Bang, you would only have 0.14 grams of gold. Within the atom, electrons are about 1/2,000 of the size of protons or neutrons.
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Location
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Because of their size and charge, protons and neutrons remain in the nucleus of the atom, while the electrons orbit the nucleus. The nucleus is the center of the atom.
Types
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Atoms differ based on the number of protons, neutrons and electrons. The more of these particles there are, the heavier the element will be. For example, hydrogen only has one proton, neutron and electron and is very light, while gold has 79 of each.
Fun Fact
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Most of the volume of an atom is empty space, because of the distance between the orbiting electrons and the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. However, since the electrons orbit at such high speeds, the atom functions as if it were a solid. Electrons can travel at over 6.7 million miles per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Christian Guthier
