INSIDE OUT SOME PROPERTIES OF THE THREE MAIN SUBATOMIC Subatomic PARTICLES Charge Mass, grams Location in the particle (symbol) Atom
Electrons (e-) -1 9.109 x 10-28 Outside nucleus
Protons (p+) +1 1.672 x 10-24 Nucleus Neutrons (n0) 0 1.675 x 10-24 Nucleus •You have seen that protons and neutrons are “massive indeed”. • Electrons are very much lighter than the protons and neutrons, to the point that its mass does not significantly contribute to the mass of the entire atom. In effect, the mass of the electron is negligible. • Collectively, the protons and neutrons are called NUCLEONS. • The nucleons, tightly packed together, form the NUCLEUS in the center of the atom. • Thus, most of the mass of an atom contained in the nucleus. DIFFERENT MODELS OF THE ATOM • The excitement comes from guessing about something that is unseen. • The scientists had to look for ways to find out what the eyes cannot see. • When the idea of the atom was first proposed by the ancient Greeks, they thought it was a particle with no parts. • However, towards the 19th century, Joseph John Thomson was able to discover that atoms have negatively-charged particles, which he called ELECTRONS. It led him to propose a new model for the atom, which he called the PLUM PUDDING MODEL. • A group of scientists composed of Ernest Rutherford, Johannes “Hans” Wilhelm Geiger and Ernest Marsden tested Thomson’s model by bombarding a very thin sheet of gold foil with positively-charged alpha particles. Their experiment is referred to as the ALPHA PARTICLE SCATTERING EXPERIMENT. • To account for the deflections and the rare occasions of very large deflections, Rutherford, in 1911, suggested a different structure of the atom where all the positive charge and nearly all the mass of the atom were concentrated in a very tiny region called nucleus at the center of the atom. •The other puzzle about the atom concerns the electrons. • On of the models of the electrons in atoms is the planetary model where the electrons were thought to move in orbits around the nucleus similar to the way planets move around the sun. What we do know: • The electron although it is negatively-charged does not collapse into the positively-charged nucleus • There is attraction between the nucleus and the electron, evidence of which is that energy is required to remove an electron from the atom. ACTIVITY