Monday, March 3, 2008

Elements

Lately in science we have been learning about atoms and the periodic table of elements.

Here are some of the elements symbols that we should know:
O=oxygen
H=hydrogen
He=helium
C=carbon
N=nitrogen
Ne=neon
Na=sodium
Mg=magnesium
Al=aluminum
S=sulfur
K=potassium
Ca=calcium
Fe=iron
Ni=nickel
Cu=copper
Zn=zinc
Ag=silver
Sn=tin
I=iodine
Au=gold
Hg=mercury
Pb=lead
Cl=chlorine

Also, we have been learning about atoms. Atoms contain protons and neutrons in its nucleus. Around the edge of the nucleus are electrons zooming around the in the orbit. A nucleus compared to an entire atom has been compared to a bee and a football field, the bee being the nucleus and the football field being the atom. There are always the same amount of protons in a nucleus but the amount of neutrons can differ slightly. For example, oxygen will always have 8 protons but it can have 16, 17, or 18 neutrons. Usually oxygen has 16 neutrons though so if you subtract the number of protons (8) by the number of neutrons (16) you get the number of electrons (which would be 16-8 or 8). That is what we have been learning about in science lately.