This GCSE Chemistry blog post is to describe the structure of an atom.
The learning objective is to understand and recognise that elements are made from only one type of particle known as an atom, which is the smallest part of an element.
Atoms
1) All substances are made up of atoms --- paper in your books, the air you are breathing and every part of your body.
2) An atom is the smallest part of an element that can exist.
3) Atoms vary in size but they are all incredibly small --- about 0.000 000 1mm wide, so that means you would need 10 million of them end to end to make 1mm.
Atoms are the simplist thing you can get, does that mean they cannot be broken down even smaller?
NO! They can --- and that's where atomic structure comes in!
Structure of atoms
In GCSE Chemistry, the structure of atoms includes protons, neutrons, electrons and nucleus.
Subatomic particles
In GCSE Chemistry, there are 3 subatomic paricles in an atom: protons, neutrons and electrons.
They are different from each other.
That's all!!