Atoms & Molecules

            Atoms

If you take any piece of matter an keep slicing in up, it will get smaller and smaller until you come to a piece that you will not be able to cut by physical or chemical means.  This little left over is called an ATOM. The ATOM is the basic building block of all things.

Example:  If you were to take apart a LEGO house piece by piece, eventually you will come to one LEGO piece.  That one LEGO left over is like an ATOM.  You must have those individual LEGO pieces to build the LEGO house.  This is the same for the atom to matter. You need atoms to build different things that take up space (matter).

                                                                            Basic Building Blocks

What Does an Atom Look Like?

An atom is made up of three things.  Protons, Neutrons and Electrons  (we call these three things, SUBATOMIC PARTICLES-- "sub" meaning "smaller than" and "atomic" meaning "from an atom"). The protons and neutrons hang out in the atom's nucleus (the middle of the atom).  The electrons hang out around the nucleus.  Protons have a positive charge (+), electrons have a negative change (-), and neutrons have no charge (they're neutral).

                                Molecules

When atoms join (bond) together we can them molecules.  Some molecule are as simple as just two atoms joined (bonded) together and other molecules have thousands of atoms joined (bonded) together. Molecules can be made of the same types of atoms  (all oxygen atoms) or they can be made of many different types of atoms (some carbon.. some hydrogen...some oxygen...etc...)

                                                                                     Water Molecule  H2O

                                          ** oxygen molecules bonding to hydrogen molecules to form a larger water molecule