• Question: what is an atom ???

    Asked by to clairemarieroberts, Faye, Martin, Mus, Pete, Jemma, John, Lisa, Sam on 27 Apr 2012. This question was also asked by natrualme.
    • Photo: Pete Etchells

      Pete Etchells answered on 27 Apr 2012:

      Hi assult1! Atoms are the basic building blocks of everything that we see around us. They’re made up of three types of subatomic particle, called protons, neutrons and electrons, and different combinations of these particles make atoms of different types of element – for example, hydrogen contains one proton and one electron, whereas carbon contains 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 1 Jun 2012:

      Hi @assult1 and @naturalme,

      at risk of copying what @Peter says below, atome are fundamental building blocks of all matter around us. They are made up of a nucleus which has neutrally charged neutrons, and positively charged protons, and electrons in shells outside the nucleus which are negatively charged. As the nucleus is positive, and the electron is negative, the electron is in effect kept in orbit around the nucleus.

      Hope that answers your question

      Jemma

Comments