What does the atom of any substance consist of?

The atom, as a separate unit, is constructed from a nucleus charged with a positive electric charge, and from electrons carrying a negative charge. This is what the atom consists of.

In its center is the nucleus, whichform even smaller particles - protons and neutrons. Concerning the radius of the entire atom, the radius of the nucleus is about a hundred thousand times smaller. The density of the core is extremely high.

A stable elementary particle of the nucleus withA positive charge is a proton. A neutron is an elementary particle that does not have an electric charge, with a mass approximately equal to the mass of the proton. The core mass is composed, respectively, of the total mass of protons and neutrons, the aggregate of which in the nucleus is abbreviated as the nucleon. These nucleons in the nucleus are connected by unique nuclear forces. The number of protons in an atom is equal to a certain number of electrons in the atomic shell and, as a consequence, forms the basis for the chemical properties of the atom.

Electron as the smallest particle of matter carries inimagine an elementary negative electric charge. Electrons constantly rotate around the nucleus in certain orbits, like the rotation of planets around the Sun. Thus, to the question of what the atom consists of, we can give the following answer: from elementary particles with positive, negative and neutral charges.

There is the following regularity: the size of the atom depends on the size of its electron shell, or the height of the orbit. Within the framework of the answer to the question of what the atom consists of, it can be clarified that the electrons are capable of both being added and removed from the atom. This circumstance turns the atom into a positive ion or, accordingly, into a negative ion. And the process of transformation of an elementary chemical particle is called ionization.

A large stock is concentrated in the atomic nucleusThe energy that can be released during nuclear reactions. Such reactions, as a rule, arise in the collision of atomic nuclei with other elementary particles or with nuclei of other chemical elements. As a result of nuclear reactions, new nuclei can form. For example, the reaction is capable of carrying out the transition of a neutron into a proton, while a beta particle is removed from the atomic nucleus, otherwise the electron.

Qualitative transition at the center of the proton atom ina neutron can be implemented in two ways. In the first case, a particle comes out of the nucleus with a mass that is equal to the mass of the electron, but with a positive charge, called a positron (the so-called positron decay). The second option involves the capture by the nucleus of an atom of one of the electrons nearest to it from the K-orbit (K-capture). So the chemical elements are transformed from one into another because of what the atom consists of.

There are such states of the nucleus formed,when it has an excess of energy, in other words, it is in an excited state. In the case of transition to the natural state, the nucleus releases excessive energy in the form of a portion of electromagnetic radiation with a very small wavelength - this is how gamma radiation is formed. The energy that is released during the nuclear reactions that are being realized finds practical application in a number of branches of science and industry.

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