The smallest electrically neutral particle of a chemical element: composition, structure, properties

The whole world around, starting from the very depths of the earth and up to outer space, consists of a countless number of objects, each of which is material. Scientists believe that matter can not be destroyed or created, it is infinite and eternal. Movement is one of the qualities inherent in matter. This is not only the spatial displacement of the bodies themselves, but also the change in their states, properties, and so on.

Matter and its systems

Space and time are considered a form of being for matter. One of its primary properties is the ability to reflect in the minds of people.

In science today, the following levels of matter and its system are distinguished:

• elementary particles;
• Atoms;
• Molecules;
• Fields;
• Bodies macroscopic;
• Geological systems;
• Planets;
• stars;
• Galaxies;
• System of galaxies;
• Universes;
• System of universes.

All material systems consist of living substances, that is, different organisms, which, unlike others, are able to reproduce. A kind of building element for matter are elementary particles. It can be the smallest electrically neutral particle of a chemical element that has this or that charge.

Elementary particles

In total, there are up to three hundred elementary particles that are currently open. If a particle has a charge, then there must be an antiparticle. The exception is the smallest electrically neutral particle of a chemical element.

All of them are divided into:

• Hadrons that participate in all interactions, they are divided into baryons (hyperons and nucleons) and mesons;
• Leptons participate in all interactions, except for the strong (among which there are electrons, muons and neutrinos).

And only photons do not belong to any of the named groups.

The division is made based on the fundamental interactions, which are strong or weak, electromagnetic, gravitational. Strong interaction is much more electromagnetic (a hundred times). The effect is on an ultra-small distance - 10ˉ¹⁵ meters. Of course, the weak is much less than the electromagnetic one, but it exceeds the gravitational one many times.

Structure and stability of properties

Clear distinctions, which has the smallest electrically neutral particle of a chemical element and other elementary particles, no. For example, it is known that they have a complex structure, which includes the so-called quarks.

If we consider the properties of time, then the particles exhibit them stably or unstable. Among the first, photons, muon and electron neutrinos, protons with electrons and their antiparticles are distinguished. Other elementary particles can decay in the period from 10³ for neutrons in a free state to 10ˉ²²-10ˉ²⁴ for those particles that are called resonances.

Electrons, protons and neutrons

Elementary particles that are part of physical objects are called electrons, protons and neutrons.

The former have a stable negative charge and a mass of 9 * 10ˉ³¹ kilograms. They are leptons, since they participate in all interactions except the strong ones. Protons also have stable properties, but their mass exceeds the electronic one 1836 times. This is a baryon from the nucleus of the light isotope of the hydrogen atom. Neutrons, as the name implies, are neutral particles with a mass higher than the proton mass. These are also baryons. They are unstable and have a lifespan of up to sixteen minutes. Protons and neutrons form the nuclei of atoms.

The composition of the atom

The smallest electrically neutral particle of a chemical element is called an atom. In its center there is a nucleus, which has almost the entire mass. The nucleus is charged positively, since it has only protons and neutrons in its composition. The number of protons can be determined by the number of the element and the periodic table: their number coincides with the ordinal number.

Around the nucleus, electrons move, the number of which is the same as that of protons. The smallest electrically neutral particle is capable of giving off electrons or, conversely, attaching them. Depending on this, the atom acquires a negative or positive charge. Chemical properties manifest themselves depending on the number of electrons that can be located from the nucleus at different distances and move along different orbits, with different velocities, energies.

An electrical neutral elementary particle can not be expressed graphically. Physicists today imagine an atom in the form of a heavy nucleus with an electronic continuous cloud around. It is impossible to determine the arrangement of electrons, since there is no corresponding equipment, and also because they exhibit simultaneously wave properties.

Thanks to quantum mechanics it was proved that each electric neutral elementary particle can have up to several groups of electrons that create electronic spherical shells, the maximum number of which is seven.

Going to a deeper level, the electron emits a photon. Each electron, among other things, rotates on its axis. The property was called "spin". It is believed that this speed is constant, it can not be changed in any way.

The set of atoms

How an electrically neutral particle is constructed is studied using a spectrum. The atom emits or absorbs light lines. This becomes possible due to the energy that takes on discrete values corresponding to atomic states and varies on quantum transitions.

The set of atoms possessing a single charge becomes a chemical element. Today, 107 are known, 19 of which were originally obtained by artificial means and only then discovered in nature.

Kernels with a heavy mass are unstable, so americium and the following chemical elements are obtained only in nuclear reactions.

When one electrically neutral particle of a chemical element combines with another (the number of atoms can total up to two thousand), a molecule is formed, which is the smallest particle of a substance with all its chemical properties. But this is already the topic of another article.