Basic information about the structure of the atom: characteristics, features and formula

The atom is the smallest particle of a chemical substance that is capable of preserving its properties. The word "atom" comes from the ancient Greek "atomos", which means "indivisible." . Depending on how many and which particles are in the atom, you can determine the chemical element .

Briefly on the structure of the atom

How can we briefly list the basic information about the structure of an atom? An atom is a particle with one nucleus, which is charged positively. Around this nucleus there is a negatively charged cloud of electrons. Each atom in its normal state is neutral. The size of this particle can be completely determined by the size of the electron cloud that surrounds the nucleus.

The core itself, in turn, also consists of smaller particles - protons and neutrons. Protons are positively charged. Neutrons do not carry any charge. However, protons, together with neutrons, combine into one category and are called nucleons. . If basic information on the structure of the atom is needed briefly, then this information can be limited to the data listed .

The first information about the atom

About the same, that the matter can consist of small particles, the ancient Greeks also suspected. They believed that everything that exists is composed of atoms. However, this view was purely philosophical and can not be interpreted scientifically.

The first basic information about the structure of the atom was received by the English scientist John Dalton. It was this researcher who was able to discover that two chemical elements can enter into different relationships, and each such combination would be a new substance. For example, eight parts of an oxygen element generate carbon dioxide. Four parts of oxygen are carbon monoxide.

In 1803 Dalton discovered the so-called law of multiple relations in chemistry. . Using indirect measurements (since no atom could then be considered under the then microscopes), Dalton concluded about the relative weight of the atoms .

Research by Rutherford

Almost a century later, basic information about the structure of atoms was confirmed by another English chemist, Ernest Rutherford. The scientist proposed a model of the electron shell of the smallest particles.

At that time, Rutherford's "Planetary Atomic Model" was one of the most important steps that chemistry could make. Basic information about the structure of the atom showed that it is similar to the solar system: particle-electrons rotate around the nucleus in strictly defined orbits, just as planets do.

The electronic shell of atoms and the formulas of atoms of chemical elements

The electron shell of each of the atoms contains exactly as many electrons as there are in its proton core. That is why the atom is neutral. In 1913 another scientist received basic information about the structure of the atom. The formula of Niels Bohr was similar to the one that received Rutherford. According to his conception, the electrons also rotate around a nucleus located in the center. Bor finished the theory of Rutherford, introduced harmony into its facts.

Even at that time formulas of some chemical substances were compiled. For example, schematically the structure of the nitrogen atom is denoted as 1s ² 2s ² 2p ³ , the structure of the sodium atom is expressed by the formula 1s ² 2s ² 2p ⁶ 3s ¹ . Through these formulas you can see how many electrons are moving along each of the orbitals of a chemical substance.

The Schrodinger model

However, this atomic model is also obsolete. Basic information about the structure of the atom, known to science today, has largely become available due to the research of the Austrian physicist E. Schrödinger.

He proposed a new model of its structure - wave. By this time, scientists have already proved that the electron is endowed not only with the nature of the particle, but possesses the properties of a wave.

However, the Schrödinger and Rutherford models also have general provisions. Their theories are similar in that electrons exist at certain levels.

Such levels are also called electron layers. Using the level number, the electron energy can be characterized. The higher the layer, the more energy it has. All levels are counted from the bottom up, so the level number corresponds to its energy. Each of the layers in the electron shell of the atom has its sublevels. In this case, the first level can have one sublevel, the second one - two, the third - three, and so on (see the above electronic formulas of nitrogen and sodium).

Even smaller particles

At the moment, of course, even smaller particles are open than the electron, proton and neutron. It is known that a proton consists of quarks. There are even smaller particles of the universe - for example, neutrinos, which in size are a hundred times smaller than a quark and a billion times smaller than a proton.

Neutrinos are so small a particle that it is 10 times a septillion times smaller than, for example, tyrannosaurus. The tyrannosaur itself is just as much smaller than the entire observable universe.

Basic information about the structure of the atom: radioactivity

It has always been known that no chemical reaction can transform one element into another. But in the process of radioactive radiation this happens spontaneously.

Radioactivity is the ability of atomic nuclei to transform into other nuclei - more stable ones. When people got basic information about the structure of atoms, the isotopes to some extent could serve as the embodiment of the dreams of the medieval alchemists.

During the decay of isotopes, radioactive radiation is emitted. For the first time such a phenomenon was discovered by Becquerel. The main form of radioactive radiation is alpha decay. With it, an alpha particle is released. There is also beta decay, in which the beta-particle is emitted from the nucleus of the atom, respectively.

Natural and Artificial Isotopes

At present, about 40 natural isotopes are known. Most of them are located in three categories: uranium-radium, thorium and actinium. All these isotopes can be found in nature - in rocks, soil, air. But apart from them, there are also about a thousand artificially produced isotopes that are obtained in nuclear reactors. . Many of their isotopes are used in medicine, especially in diagnostics .

The proportions inside the atom

If you imagine an atom, the size of which will be comparable to the size of an international sports stadium, then you can visually obtain the following proportions. Electrons of the atom in such a "stadium" will be located at the very top of the stands. Each of them will be smaller than the pin head. Then the core will be located in the center of this field, and its size will be no more than the size of a pea.

Sometimes people ask the question, how the atom actually looks. In fact, it literally does not look in any way - not for the reason that insufficiently good microscopes are used in science. The dimensions of the atom are in those areas where the notion of "visibility" simply does not exist.

Atoms have very small dimensions. But how small are these dimensions actually? The fact is that the smallest, barely discernible grain of a human eye contains about one quintillion atoms.

If we imagine an atom of this size that could fit into the human hand, then next to it would be viruses of 300-meter length. Bacteria would have a length of 3 km, and the thickness of the human hair would be equal to 150 km. In a lying position, he could go beyond the boundaries of the earth's atmosphere. And if such proportions were valid, then the human hair could reach the moon in length. Here he is such an uneasy and interesting atom, the study of which scientists continue to study to this day.