• Question: what are atoms

    Asked by deannee to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Gemma Purser

      Gemma Purser answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Atoms are tiny units of matter that have a centre called the nuclues. The nucleus is made up of protons, positively charged particles and neutrons, which have no charge but are slightly heavier than protons. The nucleus is then surrounded by a cloud of electrons. These electrons are attracted to the positive nucleus by an electromagnetic force (opposites attract!).

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi deanee,

      A great question. The New Zealand born scientist, Ernest Rutherford discovered the atom, then considered the smallest particle in Physics 100 years ago (we now know it is now, we are always searching for smaller and smaller particles especially at the Large Hadron Collider!).

      Gemma’s answer is a good explanation, all I’d add is that the atom is a lot of empty space, I think it’s decribed that if the electrons cloud was wembley stadium the nucleus would be the ball on the centre spot. Everything is made of atoms, the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus determines what sort of atom it is (Hydrogen, Carbon, etc) and then when these different atoms come together we get different molecules (such as water, 2 hydrogens and an oxygen). Atoms are really cool and really important to so many processes from the core of our earth to the energy from our sun, that’s all to do with atoms and how they behave!

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