Basics of Elements

In this post I will try to explain basically what makes elements unique, and some basic reactions they have with each other, it will help understand phrases I use later on. If you already have somewhat of a grasp on Atomic Physics, feel free to skip most of this.

To start, all of everything is composed of Atoms, which are the smallest possible particle of an element. Atoms consist of a core made of even smaller particles called Protons and Neutrons, and Electrons orbiting around this core. In general, a stable (not exploding or radioactive) Atom has one Electron for every Proton, and near the same number of Neutrons as Protons.

The number of Protons alone defines what element an Atom is, because Neutrons and Electrons can be added or subtracted*. The number of Protons is called the "Atomic number". The numbers of Protons and Neutrons combined is called the "Atomic Mass"(Electrons have practically no weight) , and defines how heavy one atom of the element is (However the weight you feel when picking up a bar of Iron is more defined by how close together the atoms are)

Every element also has an "Atomic Symbol" composed of one, two, or three letters, example H is hydrogen, Li is Lithium, Cu is copper. Only the first letter is capitalized to avoid confusing in formulas like "KHO", one Potassium (Symbol is K) one Hydrogen (H) one Oxygen (O), as opposed to KHo, which would be one Potassium and one Holmium (Ho)

I'll give you some examples of basic atoms:

Above is one of the most basic atoms, a Hydrogen atom. It has one Proton, (Atomic number of 1) no neutrons*, (Atomic mass of 1) and a single electron. Because the inner shell of electrons (The black circle) "wants" to have 2 electrons, hydrogen will bond with only one other atom, because of this normal hydrogen is actually 2 hydrogen atoms bonded together. If you add Oxygen and heat, the Hydrogen atoms will bond to the oxygen instead of each other(Oxygen will bond with 2 other atoms stably), forming water and an explosion! I'll do a longer post on Hydrogen later.

This is a slightly more advanced atom, Carbon. It's core is 6 Protons (Atomic number 6) and 6 Neutrons (Atomic mass 12), and it normally bonds with 4 other atoms. The electron shells (or layers) of this would be written 2, 4.

If you take 4 Hydrogen atoms (Which have one bond each) and 1 Carbon (With 4 bonds), the Hydrogen will surround the Carbon and form a Molecule(any group of atoms) known as Methane gas. If you replace one of the Hydrogens with another Carbon, the added Carbon will take 3 more Hydrogens to fill it's bonds, and form Ethane gas. You can keep adding carbons and making longer chains basically forever! (You might wonder why this comes in handy for element collecting, I use it because I can't always get a pure metal, sometimes I have to settle for a compound(any group of elements) containing it instead.)

*If you add or subtract Neutrons, you're creating a different form (these forms are called "Isotopes") of an element that is either heavier or lighter. You can add(or subtract) Neutrons to any element, and this sometimes makes them Radioactive, meaning they slowly decay into a different element. There are some elements that have NO stable Isotopes, meaning they are always radioactive, no matter how many Neutrons. More on Radioactivity later.

So this is the basics of atoms, there is LOTS more to learn about how they bond, but it doesn't come in handy to much for collecting in specific. If this kind of thing interests you, I highly suggest you research it and find out more! There is much more to learn than what I've listed here.

All for now,

~Ben