• Question: what are atoms

    Asked by h4m2a to Zena, Jared, Isabel, Ian, Frank on 13 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by ..
    • Photo: Zena Hadjivasiliou

      Zena Hadjivasiliou answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Atoms are what molecules and chemicals are made of. The word atom comes from greek and means “something that cannot be divided”. This is because when scientists first discovered atoms they thought that they were the smallest unit anything could be made of. But we later found out that atoms are themselves made out of smaller particles, electrons, protons and neutrinos. And protons are made up from even smaller particles called quarks.

    • Photo: Isabel Pires

      Isabel Pires answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      As Zena mentioned, an atom is the building block of all molecules.

      They are made up of mainly three types of particles: protons, electrons and neutrons. The protons (and sometimes neutrons) form the nucleus of the atom. The nucleus is surrounded by electrons, which are constantly moving, forming a type of cloud. Compared with the size of the electron cloud, the nucleus is actually very small.

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