The Harnessed Atom

Lesson Three

Atoms and Isotopes

What you need to know about Atoms and Isotopes:

Matter
– Molecules
– Elements
– Chemical reaction
– Periodic Table
The Atom
– Parts of an atom
– Isotopes
– Unstable isotopes
Scientists and discoveries

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What is the smallest thing in your classroom?

• Is it the dust under your desk?

• Is it the salt that fell off your pretzels at lunch?
• Maybe the smallest period you can make with your pencil?

No. Molecules are smaller. All the things you’ve thought of are made up of
molecules!

Molecules are too small to see. Even with the most powerful microscope.

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Are molecules the smallest?

No. Atoms are even smaller than molecules.

• Molecules are made up of atoms.

• Dust, air, water, people— everything is made of atoms.
• Atoms are so small that it takes millions of them to make a speck of dust.

Example: If the pencil lead was all carbon, that little dot you make with your
pencil has about 4 billion carbon atoms in it.

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Are atoms the smallest?

No. Most atoms are made up of even

smaller particles called
• protons
• neutrons
• electrons.

Protons carry a positive electrical charge (+). Neutrons have no electrical

charge.
Protons and neutrons together make a dense bundle at the center of an atom.
This bundle is called the nucleus.
Electrons have a negative electrical charge (-) and move around the nucleus.
Electrons are the smallest of these particles.

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What to remember

Biggest to Smallest

molecule • protons
atom nucleus electrons
• neutron
s

Protons, neutrons, and electrons

are all called particles.

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Empty space in atoms.

The particles that make up an atom are

very small.

But imagine if you could enlarge an atom to the size of a stadium.

• The nucleus would be about the size of a grape on the mid-field stripe.
• Electrons would be smaller than grains of salt whirling around the upper deck.
• Most of the atom would be empty space.

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How do you know about atoms if you can’t see them?

Direct observation is something you see for yourself.

Indirect observation is learning by looking at what happens around the unseen.
Scientists use indirect observation to learn about matter.

Example: You step out of the shower. Your wet feet leave footprints. An indirect
observer might guess you made the footprints, based on the size of the prints.

Here’s a video clip that shows how scientists use indirect observation:
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/psu06-nano.sci.pictures/

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Studying individual atoms

Today, scientists have complex ways to study things they can’t see. But scientists
have been using indirect observation for hundreds of years.

• First, they learned most things are not made out of just one kind of atom.
Instead, different kinds of atoms get together to form larger clumps of atoms
called molecules.
• Not all molecules are alike. A molecule of sugar is different from a molecule of
salt.
• Scientists started isolating molecules based on what type of atoms were in
them.

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 Elements are what they are.

Elements are the most basic parts of all matter that cannot be
broken down into simpler substances using chemical reactions.
An element is a substance whose atoms all have the same number
of protons.
Example:
Gold is an element. A bar of pure gold contains only atoms of one
element, gold.

Long ago, this was the symbol for gold: Now we use: Au

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Atoms combine with other atoms.

Most things are made up of a combination of elements.

Example: A molecule of table salt has one atom of the element sodium
and one atom of the element chlorine.

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Periodic Table of the Elements

As scientists started indirectly figuring out things about elements, like how heavy
they are or how common they are, they started sorting them into a table.

The Periodic Table of the Elements can tell you for each element
• Whether it’s a solid, liquid, or gas
• How many protons it has in its nucleus

Interactive periodic table of the elements:

http://periodic.lanl.gov/index.shtml
Photographic periodic table:
http://periodictable.com/

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Periodic Table of the Elements

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Play the elements

The periodic table displays the chemical elements. Here is fun way to
remember them.

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=145369

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What is an isotope?

The nucleus in every atom of an element always has the

same number of protons. However, the number of neutrons may vary.
Atoms that contain the same number of protons but different numbers of
neutrons are called isotopes of the element. We total the number of protons
and neutrons to name the isotope.

Example:
Let’s say your family name is Uranium. In your family, everybody has 92 protons.
• Your brother has 143 neutrons. His name is uranium-235. (92 + 143 = 235)
• You have 146 neutrons. Your name is uranium-238.
• Your big sister has 142 neutrons. What is her name?

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What is the strongest force known in nature?

Some proton-neutron combinations are more stable than others.

• Stable combinations are not likely to change.
• Unstable combinations are likely to change at some time.

Elements with unstable isotopes can change suddenly, releasing energy.

And although all atoms are extremely small, the energy that holds their
centers together is the strongest force known in nature.

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 Who discovered the energy of atoms?

Scientists from around the world ran experiments

and realized the atom contains large amounts of
energy.
• Wilhelm Roentgen discovered an invisible
energy he called an x ray. (1895)
• Henri Becquerel observed that uranium gave off
similar energy. (1896)
• Marie Curie studied uranium rays and discovered radioactivity as energy from
within the atom. (1898)
• Ernest Rutherford understood the “enormous energy” of such matter. (1904)

Many other scientists have contributed to our knowledge of elements and

atoms.

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Summary

• Atoms are the smallest units of matter that have all the characteristics of an
element. Atoms combine to form molecules. Atoms are composed of smaller
particles known as protons, neutrons, and electrons.

• Protons have a positive electrical charge, neutrons have no electrical charge,

and electrons have a negative electrical charge.

• Protons and neutrons together form the nucleus or central mass of the atom.
Electrons move around the nucleus.

• The nucleus of each atom of an element contains the same number of protons,
but the number of neutrons may vary.

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Summary

• Isotopes of an element are identified by adding the number of protons and

neutrons together and writing the sum by the chemical symbol for the element.

• The energy that holds the nucleus of an atom together is the strongest force
known in nature.

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Advanced Student Assignment: Making Matter: Build an Atom

Interactive game on CD: Online interactive game:

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/build-an-atom

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Vocabulary

• atom – the smallest part of an element that has all the properties of that
element
• chemical reaction – a process in which the make-up of a substance is
changed to form another substance; a process that involves changes in the
structure and energy content of atoms, molecules, or ions but not their nuclei
• electron – the smallest existing particle with a negative electrical charge; one
of the three basic types of particles that make up an atom; particles that orbit
the nucleus of an atom
• element – one of more than 100 simple substances that cannot be chemically
broken down and of which all matter is composed
• emit – to send out or put forth; shooting out

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Vocabulary

• isotopes – atoms of the same element that have equal numbers of protons but
different numbers of neutrons; examples are uranium-235 and uranium-238
• mass– the amount of matter that makes up an object
• matter– every substance that takes up space; something physical
• molecule –the smallest part of a substance that keeps all the characteristics of
a substance and is composed of one or more atoms
• neutron – a particle that appears in the nucleus of all atoms except hydrogen
atoms; one of the three basic particles that make up the atom; has no electrical
charge
• nuclei – the plural form of nucleus
• nucleus – the central part of an atom that contains protons, neutrons, and
other particles
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Vocabulary

• proton – an extremely small particle or bit of matter located in the nucleus and
carrying one positive charge of electricity; one of the three particles that make
up an atom
• stable isotope – an isotope that does not undergo change
• strong force – the strongest known force; the interactions within the nucleus of
an atom that hold its nucleus together
• unstable isotope – a radioactive isotope that will undergo change

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