A Beginner's View of Our Electric Universe - New

In the normal state where everything is in balance, the sum of the charge of the total number of positive
protons in the nucleus balances out with the sum of the charge of the total number of negative electrons in their
respective shells. This state of balance defines an overall electrically neutral atom. Here we remember that
the neutrally (or zero) charged neutrons that are normally present in the nucleus along with protons, have no
influence on the overall charge state of the atom.
The simplest atom we can consider out of all the available elements is the hydrogen atom. It has one proton as
its nucleus, one electron orbiting in a single shell, and no neutrons.
The simplest Atom - Hydrogen © author
You may already have heard of the ‘Periodic Table of
= Proton
Elements’ in science lessons at school or in some other
setting. This table was first constructed in 1869 by a
Russian chemist called Dimitri Mendeleev. Its contents
have grown since then and it now lists 92 naturally occurring elements and 26 that have been created by us, so
that is 118 in all. Elements such as hydrogen, iron, oxygen, copper, carbon, sodium and tin are all basic types
found in nature, and when elements combine we find ‘molecules’ formed of other things such as water, carbon
dioxide, salt and glucose. It is the single elements of the periodic table and combinations of them as molecules
that give us all the things we are currently familiar with in our material world. For instance, molecules of
water are made up of the basic elements, oxygen and hydrogen, and dry air is made up mainly of molecules of
nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide.
The sole difference between these 118 elements comes down to the numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons
that each of them have. Here, you would be correct in assuming that all these sub-atomic particles are the same;
a proton is a proton, a neutron is a neutron and an electron is an electron - it is just the numbers of these and
energies involved that make the differences between all the elements. We have already said that a basic atom of
hydrogen gas is made up of one proton and one electron. This is as basic as we can go with atoms themselves,
so hydrogen is considered to be the ‘lightest’ element in terms of its mass. In contrast, an atom of copper has 29
protons, 29 neutrons and 29 electrons, and is therefore a much heavier atom than hydrogen. This makes sense
because we know from our daily experience that metals are heavier than gases. This is important to point out
because you can think of it as the reason why all different types of matter have different weights. Materials like
aluminium and lead are both metals, but in the same physical volume of, say, one cubic centimetre, their weight
is significantly different for precisely this reason. If you spend a moment, I am sure you could come up with
your own examples.
51 | Some basic theory that will help
= Electron