atom, as a separate unit, built from the nucleus, charged with positive electric charge, and of electrons, carrying a negative charge.That is what makes up the atom.
At its center is the core, which form more finer particles - protons and neutrons.Regarding the radius of the atom core radius of about a hundred thousand times smaller.The density of the core is extremely high.
Stable elementary particle with a positive charge of the nucleus - is a proton.Neutron - an elementary particle having no electric charge, a mass approximately equal to that of the proton.The mass of the nucleus is composed, respectively, of the total mass of protons and neutrons, the totality of which composed the core abbreviated called nucleon.These nucleons in the nucleus are associated with unique nuclear forces.The number of protons in an atom is equal to the number of electrons in a specific nuclear envelope and, consequently, forms the basis for the chemical properties of the atom.
Electron as the smallest particle of matter bears the elementary negative electric charge.The electrons constantly revolve around the nucleus in a certain orbits like the rotation of the planets around the sun.Thus, the question of what constitutes an atom, we can give the following answer: elementary particles with positive, negative and neutral charges.
There is the following pattern: the size of the atom depends on the size of its electron shell, or the height of the orbit.As part of the answer to the question of what constitutes an atom, you can specify that the electrons can both be added to and removed from the atom.This circumstance makes atom or a positive ion, respectively, in the negative.And the process of transformation of elementary particles called chemical ionization.
in the atomic nucleus is concentrated a large amount of energy, which can be released during nuclear reactions.These reactions usually occur in collisions with other atomic nuclei or elementary particles with the nuclei of other chemical elements.As a result of nuclear reactions are able to form new nuclei.For example, the reaction is able to make the transition neutron into a proton, with the nucleus of an atom is removed from the beta particle, or - the electron.
qualitative shift in the center of the atom proton into a neutron is able to be carried out in two variants.In the first case comes from the core particle with mass, which is equal to the mass of an electron, but with a positive charge, called a positron (the so-called positron decay).The second option involves the seizure of the atomic nucleus of one of the closest to him of electrons from the K-orbit (K-capture).Since the chemical elements are transformed from one to the other because of what constitutes an atom.
There are such states formed the nucleus when it has excess energy, in other words, it is in an excited state.In the case of the transition to the natural state of the kernel allocates excessive energy in the form of a portion of the electromagnetic radiation with a very short wavelength - so generated gamma radiation.The energy that is released during nuclear reactions carried out has practical application in many branches of science and industry.
