All matter is composed of elements. But why is everything around us so different? The answer is related to tiny particles. They are called protons. Unlike electrons with a negative charge, these elementary particles have a positive charge. What are these particles and how do they work?
Protons everywhere
What elementary particle has a positive charge? All that you can touch, see and feel consists of atoms, the smallest building blocks that make up solids, liquids and gases. They are too small to be examined more closely, but things like your computer, the water you drink, and even the air you breathe consist of. There are many types of atoms, including oxygen, nitrogen, and iron. Each of these types is called elements.
Some of them are gases (oxygen). The nickel element has a silver color. There are other features that distinguish these tiny particles from each other. What really makes these elements different? The answer is simple: their atoms have a different number of protons. This elementary particle has a positive charge and is located inside the center of the atom.
All atoms are unique
Atoms are very similar, but a different number of protons makes them a unique type of element. For example, oxygen atoms have 8 protons, hydrogen atoms have only 1, and gold atoms have 79. You can tell a lot about the atom by simply counting its protons. These elementary particles are located in the core itself. Initially, they were thought to be a fundamental particle, but recent studies have shown that protons are composed of smaller ingredients - quarks.
What is a proton?
What elementary particle has a positive charge? This is a proton. This is the name of the subatomic particle, which is in the nucleus of each atom. In fact, the number of protons in each atom is the atomic number. Until recently, it was considered a fundamental particle. However, new technologies have led to the discovery that a proton is made up of smaller particles called quarks. Quark is a fundamental particle of matter that has only recently been discovered.
Where do protons come from?
An elementary particle having a positive charge is called a proton. These elements can be formed as a result of the appearance of unstable neutrons. After about 900 seconds, the neutron that bounced off the nucleus decays into other elementary particles of the atom: a proton, electron, and antineutrino.
Unlike a neutron, a free proton is stable. When free protons interact with each other, they form
hydrogen molecules. Our sun, like most other stars in the universe, is mainly composed of hydrogen. A proton is the smallest elementary particle that has a charge of +1. The electron has a charge of -1, and the neutron has no charge at all.
Subatomic particles: location and charge
Elements are characterized by their atomic structure, consisting of subatomic elementary particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. The first two groups are located in the nucleus (center) of the atom and have a mass unit of atomic mass. Electrons are located outside the nucleus, in zones called “shells”. They weigh almost nothing. When calculating the atomic mass, attention is drawn only to protons and neutrons. The mass of an atom is their sum.
Summing up the atomic mass of all atoms in a molecule, one can estimate the molecular mass, which is expressed in units of atomic mass (the so-called daltons). Each of the heavy particles (neutron, proton) weighs one atomic mass, so the helium atom (He), which has two protons, two neutrons and two electrons, weighs about four units of atomic mass (two protons plus two neutrons). In addition to location and mass, each subatomic particle has a property called a “charge." It can be "positive" or "negative."
Elements with the same charge tend to reflect each other, and objects with opposite charges tend to attract each other. What elementary particle has a positive charge? This is a proton. Neutrons have no charge at all, which gives the nucleus a total positive charge. Each electron has a negative charge, which is equal in strength to the positive charge of the proton. The electrons and protons of the nucleus are attracted to each other, and this is the force that holds the atom together, like the force of gravity, which holds the moon in orbit around the earth.
Stable subatomic particle
What elementary particle has a positive charge? The answer is known: proton. Moreover, it is equal in magnitude to the unit of charge of the electron. However, its mass at rest is 1.67262 × 10 -27 kg, which is 1836 times the mass of the electron. Protons, together with electrically neutral particles called neutrons, make up all atomic nuclei, with the exception of hydrogen. Each nucleus of a given chemical element has the same number of protons. The atomic number of this element determines its position in the periodic table.
Proton discovery
A positively charged elementary particle is a proton, the discovery of which dates from the earliest studies of atomic structure. When studying the fluxes of ionized gaseous atoms and molecules from which the electrons were removed, a positive particle was determined, which is equal in mass to the hydrogen atom. Ernest Rutherford (1919) showed that nitrogen, when bombarded with alpha particles, emits what seems like hydrogen. By 1920, he isolated an elementary particle from hydrogen nuclei, calling it a proton.
High-energy studies of particle physics at the end of the 20th century improved the structural understanding of the nature of the proton within a group of subatomic particles. It has been shown that protons and neutrons are made up of smaller particles and are classified as baryons - particles made up of three elementary units of matter known as quarks.
Subatomic particle: towards a great unified theory
An atom is a small part of matter, which is a specific element. For some time it was believed that he was the smallest part of matter that could exist. But at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, scientists discovered that atoms consist of certain subatomic particles and that no matter what element, the same subatomic particles make up an atom. The number of different subatomic particles is the only thing that changes.
Scientists now recognize that there are many subatomic particles. But in order to be successful in chemistry, you really need to deal with only three main ones: protons, neutrons and electrons. Matter can be electrically charged in one of two ways: positive or negative.
How is an elementary particle having a positive charge called? The answer is simple: a proton, it is he who carries one unit of positive charge. And due to the presence of negatively charged electrons, the atom itself is neutral. Sometimes some atoms can gain or lose electrons and get a charge. In this case, they are usually called ions.
Elementary particles of an atom: an ordered system
The atom has a systematic and ordered structure that ensures stability and is responsible for all kinds of properties of matter. The study of these subatomic particles began more than a hundred years ago, and by now we already know a lot about them. scientists have found that most of the atom is empty and sparsely populated by "electrons." They are negatively charged light particles that rotate around the central heavy part, which is 99.99% of the total atomic mass. Finding out the nature of electrons was easier, but after numerous brilliant studies, it became known that the nucleus includes positive protons and neutral neutrons.
Every unit in the universe is made up of atoms.
The key to understanding most of the properties of matter is that every unit in our universe consists of atoms. There are 92 natural types of atoms, and they form molecules, compounds and other types of substances to create a complex world around us. Although the name “atom” was derived from the Greek word átomos, which means “indivisible,” modern physics has shown that it is not the final building block of matter and is really “divided” into subatomic particles. They are the real fundamental entities that make up the whole world.