PAGE 1

• Protons and neutrons live

compacted in the tiny positively
Atomic Structure
charged nucleus accounting for
What is an atom? most of the mass of the atom

• Atom: the smallest unit • The negatively charged

of matter that retains electrons are small and have a
the identity of the relatively small mass but occupy
substance a large volume of space outside
the nucleus
• First proposed by
Democratus How do the subatomic particles
balance each other?

• In an atom:

• The protons = the

electrons

• If 20 protons are
present in an atom
What’s in the Nucleus? then 20 electrons
are there to
• The nucleus contains 2 of the 3
balance the overall
subatomic particles:
charge of the
• Protons: positively atom—atoms are
charged subatomic neutral
particles
• The neutrons have no
• Neutrons: neutrally charge; therefore they
charged subatomic do not have to equal the
particles number of protons or
electrons
What’s in the Electron Cloud?
• Atomic number: this
• The 3rd subatomic particle
number indicates the
resides outside of the nucleus
number of protons in an
in the electron cloud
atom
• Electron: the subatomic
• Ex: Hydrogen’s atomic
particle with a negative
number is 1
charge and relatively no
mass • So hydrogen has 1 proton

How do these particles interact? • Ex: Carbon’s atomic

number is 6
PAGE 2

p+
• So carbon has 6 protons • =2

• **The number of protons • no = 2

identifies the atom.
• e- = 2
• Ex. 2 protons = He, 29
protons = Cu

• Mass number: the number of

protons and neutrons in the
nucleus

• Ex: hydrogen can have a

mass of 3.

Since it has 1 proton it

must have 2 neutrons

• mass # - atomic # = #
of neutrons

Determining the number of protons

and neutrons

• Li has a mass number of 7 and

an atomic number of 3

• Protons = 3 (same as
atomic #)

• Neutrons= 7-3 = 4 (mass

# - atomic #)

• Ne has a mass number of 20

and an atomic number of 10

• Protons = 10

• Neutrons = 20 - 10= 10

What about the electrons?

• The electrons are equal to the

number of protons

• So e- = p = atomic #

• Ex: He has a mass # of 4 and

an atomic # of 2
PAGE 3
Atomos: Not to Be Cut
 This model of the atom may
look familiar to you. This is the
Bohr model. In this model, the
nucleus is orbited by electrons,
which are in different energy
levels.
 A model uses familiar
ideas to explain
unfamiliar facts observed
in nature.
 A model can be
changed as new
information is
collected.
Atomic Models
The atomic model has changed
throughout the centuries, starting in
400 BC, when it looked like a billiard
ball
Who are these men?
The men whose quests for
knowledge about the
fundamental nature of the
universe helped define our
views.
Democritus
 This is the Greek philosopher
Democritus who began the
search for a description of
matter more than 2400 years
ago.
 He asked: Could matter
be divided into smaller
and smaller pieces
forever, or was there a
limit to the number of
times a piece of matter
could be divided?
Atomos
 His theory: Matter could not be
divided into smaller and smaller
pieces forever, eventually the
PAGE 4

smallest possible piece would be was buried for approximately

obtained. 2000 years.

 This piece would be indivisible.

 He named the smallest piece of

matter “atomos,” meaning “not
to be cut.”

 To Democritus, atoms were

small, hard particles that were Dalton’s Model
all made of the same material
 I
but were different shapes and
n the
sizes.
early
 Atoms were infinite in number, 1800s
always moving and capable of , the
joining together. Englis
h
This theory was ignored and
Chemi
forgotten for more than 2000
st John Dalton performed a
years!
number of experiments that
Why? eventually led to the
acceptance of the idea of
 The eminent philosophers of
atoms.
the time, Aristotle and Plato,
had a more respected, (and Dalton’s Theory
ultimately wrong) theory.
 He deduced that all elements
are composed of atoms. Atoms
are indivisible and
indestructible particles.

 Atoms of the same element are

exactly alike.

 Atoms of different elements

are different.
Aristotle and Plato favored the
 Compounds are formed by the
earth, fire, air and water
joining of atoms of two or more
approach to the nature of
elements.
matter. Their ideas held sway
because of their eminence as This theory became one of the
philosophers. The atomos idea foundations of modern
chemistry.
PAGE 5
Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model
 In 1897, the English scientist
J.J. Thomson provided the first
hint that an atom is made of
even smaller particles.
Thomso
n
Model
 He proposed a model of the
atom that is sometimes called
the “Plum Pudding” model.
 Atoms were made from a
positively charged substance
with negatively charged
electrons scattered about, like
raisins in a pudding.
Rutherford’s Gold Foil Experiment
 Thomson studied the passage of
an electric current through a
gas.
 As the current passed through
the gas, it gave off rays of
negatively charged particles.
 This surprised Thomson,
because the atoms of the gas
were uncharged. Where had the
negative charges come from?
 Thomson concluded that the
negative charges came from
within the atom.
 A particle smaller than an atom
had to exist.
 The atom was divisible!
 Thomson called the negatively
charged “corpuscles,” today
known as electrons.
 Since the gas was known to be
neutral, having no charge, he
reasoned that there must be
positively charged particles in
the atom.
 But he could never find them.
 In 1908, the English physicist
Ernest Rutherford was hard at
work on an experiment that
seemed to have little to do with
unraveling the mysteries of the
atomic structure.
 Rutherford’s experiment
Involved firing a stream of tiny
positively charged particles at a
PAGE 6
thin sheet of gold foil (2000
atoms thick)
 Most of the positively
charged “bullets” passed
right through the gold
atoms in the sheet of gold
foil without changing
course at all.
 Some of the positively
charged “bullets,”
however, did bounce away
from the gold sheet as if
they had hit something
solid. He knew that
positive charges repel
positive charges.
Bohr Model
 This could only mean that the
gold atoms in the sheet were
mostly open space. Atoms were
not a pudding filled with a
positively charged material.
 Rutherford concluded that an
atom had a small, dense,
positively charged center that
repelled his positively charged
“bullets.”
 He called the center of the
atom the “nucleus”
 The nucleus is tiny compared to
the atom as a whole.
 Rutherford reasoned that all of
an atom’s positively charged
particles were contained in the
nucleus. The negatively charged
particles were scattered
outside the nucleus around the
atom’s edge.
 In 1913, the Danish scientist
Niels Bohr proposed an
improvement. In his model, he
placed each electron in a
specific energy level.
PAGE 7

 According to Bohr’s atomic Electron Cloud

model, electrons move in
definite orbits around the
nucleus, much like planets circle
the sun. These orbits, or energy
levels, are located at certain
distances from the nucleus.

Wave Model  A space in which electrons are

likely to be found.

 Electrons whirl about the

nucleus billions of times in one
second

 They are not moving around in

random patterns.

 Location of electrons depends

upon how much energy the
 Today’s atomic model is based electron has.
on the principles of wave
Origin of Elements
mechanics.
Democritus proposed the idea of the
 According to the theory of
atom. Dalton proposed the atomic
wave mechanics, electrons do
theory.
not move about an atom in a
definite path, like the planets • An element is a substance that
around the sun. cannot be broken down into a
simpler substance.
 In fact, it is impossible to
determine the exact location of Examples of Elements
an electron. The probable
location of an electron is based
on how much energy the Carbon (C)
electron has.

 According to the modern atomic

model, at atom has a small
positively charged nucleus
surrounded by a large region in
which there are enough
electrons to make an atom
Sodium(Na)
neutral.
PAGE 8

• But where did the idea of these Robert Boyle

“elements” first come from?
Irish scientist, Robert Boyle, later
The Ancient Greeks defined what an element was:

In particular Empedocles An element is a substance that cannot

490 – 435 BCE, had the idea be broken down into any simpler substance
that there were four basic
building blocks (elements) from
which everything was made: Definition

earth,
Humphrey Davy
fire,

water

and air

• Davy was an English chemist

who started out his research
examining the medicinal effect
of various gases
Democritus
• Davy used electricity to split up
Around 2500 years ago
compounds to form elements

Davy’s Elemental Discoveries

1807 1808

Piece of matter

-Split or break up into smaller one

Eventually I end up with something

which cannot be broken up – called
an element
PAGE 9

The Birth and Death of Stars and heat holding it up is called

What are Stars?
The life of a star
 Stars are large balls of hot gas.
 They look small because they
are a long way away, but in fact
many are bigger and brighter
than the Sun.
 The heat of the star is made in
the center by nuclear fusion
reactions.
 There are lots of different
colors and sizes of stars.
How are stars made?
 Stars are made (or “born”) in
giant clouds of dust and gas.
Thermodynamic Equilibrium.
 During its “life” a star will not
change very much.
 However, different stars are
different colors, size and
brightness.
 The bigger a star, the hotter
and brighter it is. Hot stars are
Blue. Smaller stars are less
bright, cooler and Red.
 Because they are so hot, the
bigger stars actually have
shorter lives than the small,
cool ones.

 Sometimes part of the cloud How does a star “die”?

shrinks because of gravity.
 Eventually, the hydrogen
 As it shrinks it becomes hotter (the“fuel” for the nuclear
and when it is hot enough, fusion) in the center of the
nuclear reactions can start in star will run
the centre…..
out.
 … and A Star is Born!
 No new heat is made and
What happens next?
gravity will take over and the
 Once nuclear fusion is
center of the star will shrink.
producing heat in the center of
the new star, this heats stops  This makes the very outside
the rest of the star from
of the star “float up” and cool
collapsing.
down, making the star look
 The star then stays almost
exactly the same for a long much bigger and
time (about 10 billion years for
redder-a Red Giant star.
a star like the Sun).
The second Red Giant stage
 The balance between gravity
trying to make the star shrink
PAGE 10

 As the center collapses, it  Here you can see a planetary

becomes very hot again, nebula called M57 with its
eventually getting hot enough to White Dwarf in the middle.
start a new kind of nuclear
The end of a massive star
fusion with Helium as the fuel.
 For more massive (bigger) stars
 Then the Red Giant shrinks and
than the Sun, many more types
the star looks “normal” again.
of nuclear fusion can take place.
 This does not last very long,
 This means several more Red
though, as the Helium runs out
Giant stages.
very quickly and again the star
forms a Red Giant.  However, eventually even the
biggest stars run out of fuel
The end of a Sun-like star
and finally collapse.
 For a star like the Sun, no more
 For the biggest stars, this
nuclear fusion can take place, so
collapse causes a huge explosion
the center of the star will then
called a Supernova! A
keep collapsing.
Supernova can be brighter than
 Eventually it can become almost an entire galaxy of
as small as the Earth, but with 100,000,000,000 stars!
the same mass as a whole star!
This very dense object is called
a White Dwarf. What is left after a
Supernova?
 A piece of White Dwarf the
size of a mobile phone would  Because the star was so big,
weigh as much as an elephant on the collapse does not stop even
the Earth! with a White Dwarf, but an
even more dense object called a
Neutron Star is made.
The end of a Sun-like star
 The density of a Neutron star
 The outer parts of the star is about 1x1018 kg/m3 (that is
(that formed the Red Giant) 1,000,000,000,000,000,000!)
then drift off into space and
 Sometimes the collapse cannot
cool down making a Planetary
stop at all and a Black Hole is
Nebula.
made, from which not even light
 Planetary nebulae have nothing can escape!
to do with planets, of course,
 The debris of the explosion is
they just look a bit like them in
blown away and forms a glowing
small telescopes!
PAGE 11

cloud called a Supernova the fundamental particles. This force

Remnant. is so strong that it binds and stabilize
the protons of similar charges within
Birth and Death of Stars -
a nucleus.
Summary

• Stars form in clouds of gas.

• Heat from nuclear fusion and

gravity balance.

• When the hydrogen fuel runs

out, a Red Giant is formed.
The weak force
• For Sun-like stars, a White
Dwarf and Planetary Nebula are Is so named because although it is
left. stronger than gravity, it is only
effective at very short distances.
• For massive stars, a Supernova
Technically, it is one of the strongest
explosion leaves behind a
forces, but because the particles
Supernova Remnant and a
involved are so big, their travel is
Neutron Star or perhaps even a
limited to the short distance listed
Black Hole.
above.

The Birth and Death of Stars Electromagnetic Force

White Dwarf and This is the force which exists
Collapsing Planetary Nebula
cloud between all particles which have an
electric charge. For example,
electrons (negative charge) bind with
Sun-like nucleus of an atom, due to the
stars
A new star
Supernova presence of protons (positive charge).
Remnant and
Neutron Star
Red
Giant
Massive
stars

Birth and Death of Stars - Summary

FUNDAMENTAL
FORCES/INTERACTION

The Strong Force

This force is responsible for
binding of nuclei. It is the dominant
one in reactions and decays of most of
PAGE 12
Gravitational force
is a force that attracts any objects
with mass. You, right now, are pulling
on every other object in the entire
universe! This is called Newton's
Universal Law of Gravitation.
You can find the gravitational force
between two objects by applying
the Universal Gravitation Equation,
provided you know the mass of each
object and their separation.
The Universal Gravitation Equation is:
F = Gm1m2/r2
where
F -is the force of attraction between
two objects in newtons (N)
G- is the Universal Gravitational
Constant = 6.674*10−11 N-m2/kg2
m1 and m2- are the masses of the
two objects in kilograms (kg)
r- is the separation in meters (m)
between the objects, as measured
from their centers of mass
Elementary Particle
The Building Blocks of Matter
 We have thought of electrons,
neutrons, and protons as
elementary particles, because
we believe they are basic
building blocks of matter.
 The term elementary particle
is used loosely to refer to
hundreds of particles, most of
which are unstable.
Early Discoveries
 In 1930 the known elementary
particles were the proton, the
electron, and the photon.
 Thomson identified the
electron in 1897, and Einstein’s
work on the photoelectric
effect can be said to have
defined the photon (originally
called a quantum) in 1905. The
proton is the nucleus of the
hydrogen atom.
 Despite the rapid progress of
physics in the first couple of
decades of the twentieth
century, no more elementary
particles were discovered until
1932, when Chadwick proved
the existence of the neutron,
and Carl Anderson identified
the positron in cosmic rays.
 The particle nature of the
standard model consists of
two groups:
- Matter Particles
- Force-Mediating Particles
Matter Particles
The matter component of the
Standard Model is comprised of
twelve particles.
PAGE 13
These particles all have an
intrinsic spin value of ½,
 Quarks carry color charges
(red, blue, or green) so they
participate in strong
interactions.
 The up, charm, and top quarks
carry the electric charge
(+2/3).
 The down, strange, and
bottom quarks carry the
electric charge (-1/3).
This allows the quarks to participate
in electromagnetic interaction.
 Leptons are color neutral and
do not participate in strong
interaction.
 The electron, muon, and tau
particles carry the electric
charge (-1) and participate
electromagnetic interaction.
 Neutrinos have no electric
charge and do not participate in
electromagnetic interactions.
 Quarks and leptons carry flavor
charges and participate in weak
nuclear interactions.
Force-Mediating Particles
Force-mediating particles of the
Standard Model group into three
categories that correspond with three
of the four fundamental interactions.
All three mediating particles are
bosons and have intrinsic spins of (1).
 Photons are electromagnetic
force mediators involving
charge particles.
Photons are considered massless
particles.
 W+, W-, and Zo gauge bosons
are weak nuclear mediators
involving particles of different
flavors (quarks and leptons).
W+, W-, and Z0 bosons are massive
particles.
 Gluons are strong nuclear
force-mediators involving color
charged particles (quarks).
Gluons are considered massless
particles.
Structure of Matter
Atom (10-10 m)
?
Electron
?
Quark
Nucleus (10-14 m) Nucleon (10-15 m) < 10-18 m
25
PAGE 14

Matter Particles

Every particle has an associated anti-particle

Leptons e  t Q=0
Fermions: spin-1/2

e-neutrino
-neutrino t-neutrino

e- - t- Q = -1
electron muon tau

u c t Q = 2/3
Quarks

up charm top

d s b Q = -1/3
down strange bottom

Generations: I II III

Everyday world is made of 1’st generation particles: u, d, and e-

Example: proton = uud, neutron = udd 26

Fundamental Interactions

Electro-
Gravitational Weak Strong
magnetic

Acts on: Mass – Energy Flavour Electric Charge Colour Charge

Particles Electrically
All Quarks, Leptons Quarks, Gluons
experiencing: charged

Particles Graviton Photon

W+, W-, Z0 Gluons
mediating: (not yet observed) g

Radioactive Hadron
Primary Cosmology, Atomic physics
decays, formation,
importance: planetary orbits Chemistry
Stellar energy nuclear physics

Gravity is extremely feeble (but cumulative):

28
 Negligible in particle physics interactions