What You Should Know

What is Happy Atom

What do you think would happen if you took an object, such as a piece of paper, and split it in half repeatedly? Do you think you could do that forever? Or would you eventually reach a point at which you could not longer split the paper because it would cease to be a piece of paper? From experiments, scientists have theorized that there is a "smallest particle" that all matter is made up of, which they have called an atom. An atom is the smallest particle of a material that still retains the properties of that material. Scientists have also discovered that atoms are made up of three subatomic particles call protons, neutrons, and electrons. The number of protons, neutrons, and electrons determine the characteristics of an atom. Elements are atoms that ll have the same number of protons, and usually the same number neutrons and electrons. An element can refer to one atom with a specific number of protons, or a group of atoms that all have the same number of protons (also called the atomic number).Protons and neutrons are bound tightly together in the center of an atom, which is called the nucleus. Protons are positively charged while neutrons are uncharged or neutral. Electrons are negatively charged and are located outside the nucleus in orbitals. In Happy Atoms, the plastic sphere represents the nucleus, while the arms represent the valence electrons. Valence electrons are the electrons that are involved in chemical bonds between atoms. Atoms bond when they share electrons, or when on atom gives an electron to another atom. When two or more atoms bond, they form molecules. You can think of valence electrons as the outermost electrons around an atom.Since the arms only represent the valance electrons, most elements have a greater total number of electrons than the number of arms on their Happy Atoms model. For example, sulfur actually has 16 electrons. The reason the sulfur Happy Atom only has six valence electron arms is because only the valence electrons are used when atoms bond. so you don't need the other elctrons to make molecules with sulfur. The letters on the nucleus represent the atomic symbols for the different elements. An element is the simplest form of a substance. It cannot be broken down by chemical means. For example, a bar of pure gold contains only gold atoms. There is no way to break the gold atoms down into other substances. What differentiates an atom of one element from an atom of another element are the numbers of protons in their nuclei.The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev found that if you order the elements based on the number of protons in their nucleus, the elements form groups that have similar chemical characteristics. This arrangements is known as the periodic table. The number above the atomic number and is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of the element. The rows of the periodic table are called periods. The columns are called groups.

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