Sunday, March 2, 2008

Manmade Atom?

In an atom, there are protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons are separated into the nucleus, and the electrons are outside of the nucleus. During a class activity, our class made atoms with small green beads, two different colored marbles to represent protons and neutrons, and plastic spheres, both big and small. The small sphere was to indicate the nucleus, and the large sphere was to indicate the atom itself. Worksheets were distributed throughout the classroom instructing us on how to create that certain atom. During this class activity, I learned that in each nucleus there would only be protons and neutrons. Also, if there were more protons than neutrons, this would cause a positive charge, and if there were more neutrons than protons, the atom would have a negative charge. We had made an atom that would look much like an atom within oxygen. However, to figure out how many protons or neutrons were in each we had to examine the Periodic Table, which we had studied in class.

Atoms are an interesting subject to me because I think that it is amazing how something so tiny can create something that we can see and use directly.

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