OLD PEOPLE + ATOMIC STRUCTURE

Did you guys miss us? Ready for more punny cat pictures? ;)

SHABAM.

Hahahahha so at the beginning of class we were introduced to some old ugly stone people who made some educated guesses about the atom.

not gonna lie, but some of those guesses werent too impressive.

like whatshisface.
seriously? the best you could come up with was a circle?!
DERP.



Did i mention happy bunny is like my hero?

haha ANYWAYS the more important part of the class was our discussion about the atomic structure (and how to read a periodic table).


Recall that an atom is mostly empty space, and that it is made up of tiny subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Most of the mass is in the nucleus.


In a NEUTRAL atom, there is no overall electric charge so that means there's an EQUAL number of protons and electrons! (neutrons are neutral so no charge)

Now here's something that will confuse a lot of you guys. What is the difference between mass number and atomic mass? :O

Mass number or Atomic Mass Number: Total # of protons and neutrons
Atomic Mass: AVERAGE mass of an element's isotopes. Atomic mass if very close to the mass number.


To find the atomic mass, multiply the percentages with the isotope's mass and add the different masses together.

moving along...

i.e., atomic number, mass, yadayadayada


Since oxygen is my favourite element, I am going to use it for eeevvvveeeerrryyythhiiinnnggg.

Observe my mad paint skills... Anyhoo, that magic red circle is.. well.. encircling the number 8.

Why, you ask?

I would be ever so glad to enlighten you, young grasshopper.

That number in the top left corner is the atomic number

The atomic number also tells you how many protons are in the nucleus of the atom.

This here picture has the number in the top right corner circled.

That 16 is the atomic mass.

The atomic mass is the combined mass of the 2 subatomic particles in the nucleus (the protons and neutrons).

But since we already knew that there were 8 protons, and that each proton weighs ~1, as do the neutrons...

Then we can subtract the atomic number from the atomic mass to figure out how many neutrons are in the nucleus.  In this case, you don't even need a calculator!

16-8=8 neutrons weeeeeeeeeee

So above there we were talking about atoms.

But if we are combining elements to create compounds, then we create IONS because most atoms give off or gain electrons easily. So atoms that have gained/lost electrons are called ions.

For example...

The oxygen atom has 8 protons, 8 electrons, and 8 neutrons.  But the oxygen ion has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 10 electrons.  How did I know that?  I'm psychic. 

But with the knowledge I am about to share with you, you too can pretend to have mystical powers!

Yep.  So we all know (well I hope so, anyways...) that when oxygen is an ion, it has a -2 charge.

That means it has 2 electrons gained that are unmatched with protons.  Therefore, we can assume that there are 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 +2 electrons. 

I just blew your mind i know. 

Some vocab:

anion - negatively charged ion (electron added to neutral atom)

cation - positively charged ion (electron is lost/given off)

Next topic. Isotopes.

So far we've covered that if you add or remove electrons from the neutral atom, you get ions. 

We can't move protons, although the first scientist to discover how to do so will become a gazillionaire, considering that if you change the number of protons, you change the atomic number, which means you get a new element (like gold, perhaps?).

What about if you add or subtract neutrons??

anyways, if you add or subtract a neutron, then you get an isotope. 

Now i'm going to switch my example to carbon.

The carbon atom has 6 protons, 6 electrons, and 6 neutrons. 

buuuuuuuuuut if we had a couple neutrons, then we end up with a carbon isotope that has 8 neutrons, 6 protons and 6 electrons. 

Note: When you add neutrons the màss chànges.

So with the above mentioned carbon isotope, 6 protons plus 8 neutrons gives a mass of 14. Therefore, this isotope of Carbon would be written as either

Carbon-14

ooooorrr

Remember, in the above form, the mass is on the top, and the number of protons (atomic number) is on the bottom.

What weapon can you build with potassium, nickel, and iron?

a KNiFe.

Ready to have your mind blown again?

oh snap...

Over and out, mes amies.

And may the odds be ever in your favour...