An atom a fundamental piece of matter. (Matter is anything that can be touched physically.

) Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so, everything in the universe is made of atoms. An atom itself is made up of three tiny kinds of particles called subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and the neutrons make up the center of the atom called the nucleus and the electrons fly around above the nucleus in a small cloud. The electrons carry a negative charge and the protons carry a positive charge. In a normal (neutral) atom the number of protons and the number of electrons are equal. Often, but not always, the number of neutrons is the same, too.

The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense, central nucleussurrounded by a cloud of negatively chargedelectrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons (except in the case of hydrogen-1, which is the only stablenuclide with no neutrons). The electrons of an atom are bound to the nucleus by theelectromagnetic force. Likewise, a group of atoms can remain bound to each other, forming a molecule. An atom containing an equal number of protons and electrons is electrically neutral, otherwise it has a positive charge (electron deficiency) or negative charge (electron excess) and is anion. An atom is classified according to the number of protons and neutrons in its nucleus: the number of protons determines the chemical element, and the number of neutrons determines the isotope of the element.[1] The name atom comes from the Greek" "tomos (from -, "un-" + temno, "to cut"[2]),

which means uncuttable, or indivisible, something that cannot be divided further

Dalton's Atomic Theory

It was in the early 1800s that John Dalton, an observer of weather and discoverer of color blindness among other things, came up with his atomic theory. Let's set the stage for Dalton's work. Less than twenty years earlier, in the 1780's, Lavoisier ushered in a new chemical era by making careful quantitative measurements which allowed the compositions of compounds to be determined with accuracy. By 1799 enough data had been accumulated for Proust to establish theLaw of Constant Composition ( also called the Law of Definite Proportions). In 1803 Dalton noted that oxygen and carbon combined to make two compounds. Of course, each had its own particular weight ratio of oxygen to carbon (1.33:1 and 2.66:1), but also, for the same amount of carbon, one had exactly twice as much oxygen as the other. This led him to propose the Law of Simple Multiple Proportions, which was

later verified by the Swedish chemist Berzelius. In an attempt to explain how and why elements would combine with one another in fixed ratios and sometimes also in multiples of those ratios, Dalton formulated his atomic theory. The idea of atoms had been proposed much earlier. The ancient Greek philosophers had talked about atoms, but Dalton's theory was different in that it had the weight of careful chemical measurements behind it. It wasn't just a philosophical statement that there are atoms because there must be atoms. His atomic theory, stated that elements consisted of tiny particles called atoms. He said that the reason an element is pure is because all atoms of an element were identical and that in particular they had the same mass. He also said that the reason elements differed from one another was that atoms of each element were different from one another; in particular, they had different masses. He also said that compounds consisted of atoms of different elements combined together. Compounds are pure substances (remember they cannot be separated into elements by phase changes) because the atoms of different elements are bonded to one another somehow, perhaps by hooks, and are not easily separated from one another. Compounds have constant composition because they contain a fixed ratio of atomsand each atom has its own characteristic weight, thus fixing the weight ratio of one element to the other. In addition he said that chemical reactions involved the rearrangement of combinations of those atoms.
In chemistry, an element is a pure substance that cannot be broken down into any simpler substances by chemical methods. In that light, an element is the simplest kind of matter. Each element retains its own unique properties. For example, each element has its own atomic mass, and the number of protons and electrons for an element always remains the same, although the number of neutrons can vary. We're used to calling them elements, but we also call them chemical elements, and this is because they are the basis for chemical combinations and chemical reactions.

A substance consisting of atoms which all have the same number of protons - i.e. the same atomic number. Elements are chemically the simplest substances and hence cannot be broken down further using chemical methods. Elements can only be changed into other elements using nuclear methods. At 75 percent, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, followed by helium at 23 percent and oxygen at 1 percent. The other elements make up the remaining 1 percent. In the earth's crust, oxygen (47 %) is the most abundant element, followed by silicon (28 %) and aluminum (8 %).

All matter (solid, liquid or gaseous) consists of elements, of which there are more than 100. If, in theory, we cut a block of iron into smaller and smaller pieces, we would finally end up with the smallest piece possible that still has all the characteristics of the iron element. That smallest piece is called an iron atom. An atom is very, very small. In fact, the size of an atom compared to the size of an apple, is like the size of an apple compared to the size of the Earth. Most atoms consist of three basic particles: protons (with a positive electrical charge), electrons (with a negative electrical charge),

and neutrons (with no electrical charge). Protons and neutrons are bundled together in the center of the atom, called the nucleus. The electrons move around the nucleus, each in its own orbit like the moon around the earth. Each atom of the same element is characterized by a certain number of protons in the nucleus. That number is called the atomic number. Normally, the atom has the same number of electrons in orbit around the nucleus. This atomic number identifies the elements. The list of elements (ranked according to an increasing number of protons) is called the Periodic Table. Structure:

Electron
One of three basic subatomic particles. The electron has a negative electrical charge, orbits the atomic nucleus, and has a mass about 1/2000 the mass of a proton or neutron.

Proton
One of three basic subatomic particles. Protons are located in the atomic nucleus, have a single positive electrical charge, and a mass about equal to a neutron.

Neutron
One of three basic subatomic particles. Neutrons are constituents of the atomic nucleus, are electrically neutral, and each has mass about equal to the mass of a proton.

::

Ion
Atom, or group of atoms, that carries a positive or negative electrical charge as a result of having gained or lost one or more electrons.

Nucleus
The core of an atom that contains protons and neutrons and thus contains almost all of the atom's mass. The number of protons uniquely defines the element.

4 elements

Fire, Water, Wind, Earth.

Dalton's Atomic Theory 1) All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible.

2) All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties 3) Compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms. 4) A chemical reaction is arearrangement of atoms.