well hello there kids I'm Professor Tidlybit and here's today's question. What are
too small to be seen, but make up everything including new atoms. ATOMS
make up everything! They're the building blocks for rocks plants and animals, to
cars, computers, and even the whole Earth itself is made entirely of atoms. Atoms
are really small too. How small are they? Well imagine you're at the beach, like
this one! Now focus closely on just one grain of sand. As it turns out there are
more atoms inside that tiny grain of sand, then there are probably are grains
of sand on the entire beach! Now that's a lot of
very small atoms.
Did you know that 94 kinds of atoms make up everything found in nature, and
scientists have experimentally created 24 more, which brings the total number
up to 118 kinds of atoms. Scientists call each kind of atom an element and they
put it all on this chart called the Periodic Table of Elements. Each element
here is special because it looks or acts differently from the other elements.
Surprisingly almost 99% of your body is made up of just six of these elements.
You are 65% oxygen the stuff we breathe, 18% carbon the stuff that makes charcoal
and diamonds, 10% hydrogen, the stuff that makes the Sun shine.
3% nitrogen, which fills most of the Earth's atmosphere 1.5 % calcium,
which is good for your bones, and 1% phosphorus, a strange glowing element
Now here's the weird part within one year
almost all of the atoms inside of you
will be completely replaced with new ones. How? Well we bring atoms into our
bodies when we drink, eat, and inhale, and we lose atoms when we sweat, exhale, or go
to the bathroom. This means you don't just come from the place you were born
at, because your atoms have come from everywhere on the planet. Fish from the
sea, grain from farms, fruits and vegetables from other countries, and
water from everywhere. You are an ever-changing body of atoms, which should
make you think, because if you aren't made from the same atoms you were last
year, then what makes you really you? Now that's something for you to think
about until next time.