stated clearly presents what are atoms
made of as we learned in the last
animation the word atom means uncuttable
and when John Dalton first discovered
evidence that atoms exist
he gave them that name because he
genuinely thought that they were
uncuttable he thought they were
fundamental particles the smallest bits
of matter that exist well it turns out
that he was wrong
atoms can be split apart they are made
of subatomic particles most importantly
electrons protons and neutrons protons
and neutrons appear to be made a smaller
particle still and truth be told we
don't know for sure if there really is
an end to smallness reality might just
keep going on forever and ever
the further you zoom in so there is
something strange to think about this
image was made of data collected from an
actual scan of a single nitrogen atom
fixed to a metal surface what we're
actually seeing here is the outside of
what is called the electron cloud the
outer edges of the atom the colors here
are artificial but this is the real
shape of a nitrogen atom here to the
right we see a simplified model of the
same nitrogen atom this type of model is
called the Bohr model named after the
physicist Niels Bohr other models do
exist which are more accurate but when
first being introduced to chemistry the
Bohr model is the easiest to make sense
of and so it's what we will be using
here in the center of a nitrogen atom we
have the nucleus looking over at the
scan you might think that the red
section is the nucleus that's actually
not the case as mentioned the colors
here are artificial the red pixels are
just the part of the electron cloud
that's closest to us the nucleus is
hiding underneath the electrons it is
the core of the atom and in our model
the nucleus has been dramatically
enlarged so that we can actually see it
if the model were actually drawn more to
scale the entire nucleus would be
smaller than
single pixel on your screen in fact if
we were to enlarge the atom to the size
of a professional soccer field
well actually the size of 10
professional soccer fields the nucleus
would be about the size of a house
spider the nucleus consists of one or
more protons and in most atoms a
collection of neutrons protons and
neutrons are what give the atom most of
its weight or its mass technically for
example a Gold atom has 79 protons and
typically 118 neutrons this is far
heavier than a nitrogen atom which only
has 7 protons and usually seven neutrons
the number of neutrons and a particular
type of atom might vary between
individuals for example while most
nitrogen atoms have 7 neutrons some have
just 6 while others have 8 changing the
number of neutrons inside of an atom
won't really do much to change its
chemical properties instead it will
often just make the atom slightly
heavier slightly lighter or sometimes it
will make the atom unstable on the other
hand if you were to add or subtract just
a single proton from nitrogen assuming
you had the technology to do so you
would completely change its chemical
properties so much in fact that we would
no longer call it nitrogen adding just a
single proton to a nitrogen atom would
transform it into an oxygen atom taking
a proton away from nitrogen would
transform it into carbon in other words
the number of protons an atom contains
determines the type of atom it is when
you look at the periodic table you find
that each element has a number hydrogen
is number one nitrogen is number seven
Gold is number 79 this number tells you
how many protons a single atom of that
element contains protons are positively
charged neutrons are neutral obviously
they don't actually have little faces on
them but it helps to remember electrons
on the other hand are negatively charged
we often depict them as little particles
in orbit around the nucleus similar to
planets
orbiting a Sun but this is not
technically accurate scientists tell us
that electrons can be best described as
wave functions cloud like structures
that sort of resemble the energy force
fields you might find in a
science-fiction movie that said for our
purposes today the simplified model
actually works best in general the
number of electrons and atom contains is
equal to the number of protons and its
nucleus this is because each positively
charged proton attracts one negatively
charged electron through chemical
reactions however an electron can
sometimes be stripped away from an atom
or an extra electron can sometimes be
added in these cases we call the
modified atom an ion okay that was a lot
of information thrown at you in a very
short amount of time so let's just recap
here and summarize the most important
bits what exactly our atoms made of in
the center of an atom we find one or
more protons and in most cases we also
find neutrons protons are positively
charged neutrons are neutral the number
of protons and atom contains determine
the type of atom it is hydrogen has one
proton nitrogen has seven Gold has 79
and so on orbiting about the nucleus we
find negatively charged electrons in
general the number of electrons and atom
contains is equal to the number of
protons and its nucleus this is because
each positively charged proton attracts
one negatively charged electron I am
John Perry and that was a basic overview
of the anatomy of an atom stated clearly
this animation series was made possible
with a grant from the National Science
Foundation and the Casal Research Center
at the University of California Irvine
Castle researchers are the ones that
took that really cool image of nitrogen
that I showed you and a bunch of other
images I'll show you in future videos
aside from taking pictures of atoms and
molecules the researchers at Castle also
produced a free video game called bond
breaker
which teaches players how atoms and
subatomic particles interact with one
another though it is a fairly simple
game I have found it extremely helpful
when trying to make sense of the strange
properties that atoms and subatomic
particles possess I highly recommend
checking it out a link to the game is
displayed here on screen and can also be
found in the video description this
video was of course also funded by good
people like you who support my work on
patreon.com forward slash stated clearly
thank you folks
you are amazing so long for now
everybody stay curious
also you should probably subscribe to
this YouTube channel and maybe if you
feel like it you can buy a t-shirt
there's links below the video
you