Atoms

Content

• Composition
• Properties
• Classification
• History of Atomic Theory

With the name of atom the minimum unit of the chemical elements, which has its own existence and is also indivisible. The atom is the base particle of all known matter, and it is present in all things, in living beings as well as in inert objects.

The characterization of indivisible atom It is not because of the impossibility of the atom being split, but rather that in the case of being split it would lose its chemical properties: the atom is actually made up of even smaller particles, the known subatomic particles.

Composition

In effect, the composition of the atom includes a center composed of a nucleus that contains protons and neutrons, and several outer layers that have the smallest subatomic particles of the atoms, the electrons.

While the electrons have a negative charge, protons equal electric charge but positive and the neutrons they have no charge. The model of electric charges and layers was developed by Bohr, and it works well to explain the bonds between the different atoms.

Properties

The atom always has some properties, which are useful to understand the groupings they make as well as the diverse organizations. The atom always has a atomic number (represented by the letter Z) which explains the number of protons it contains, which is equal to that of electrons. It also has a mass number, represented by the letter TO, which refers to the sum of protons and neutrons that the element contains in its nucleus.

Classification

There are different classes of atoms, and the most common classification is that carried out in the periodic table of the elements, which divides the atoms according to their atomic number: the only element that has a single proton in the nucleus is hydrogen.

These elements are also usually classified among the metals, that have a tendency to lose electrons from their last shell and then to form what are known as positive ions, from the no metals that on the contrary accept electrons in its last layer forming negative ions.

History of Atomic Theory

The atomic theory understanding these elements as the minimum unit of the structure of matter exists since Ancient Greece, and in addition to Bohr It included a large number of chemists contributing questions regarding the study.

In 1803, John dalton he modeled the atom by showing that the union between them was made through certain definite propositions. John Thomson, for his part, determined the positive and negative charge and the conformation of the ions of both signs. The next among Bohr's predecessors was Rutherford, which accounted for the question of different levels and electronic layers.

The models followed one another until the current studies of the Quantum theory, mainly oriented to the fields. Obviously, it is certain that the structure of the atomic nucleus and the particles that make it up is much more complicated than the traditional electronic structure of atoms.

Next, the complete list of the elements of the periodic table, that constitute the totality of the constituted atoms.