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Potassium is a chemical element; it has symbol K (from Neo-Latin kalium) and atomic number 19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. [8] Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure.
The mass number (symbol A, from the German word: Atomgewicht, "atomic weight"), [1] also called atomic mass number or nucleon number, is the total number of protons and neutrons (together known as nucleons) in an atomic nucleus. It is approximately equal to the atomic (also known as isotopic) mass of the atom expressed in atomic mass units.
The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol Z) of a chemical element is the charge number of an atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei composed of protons and neutrons, this is equal to the proton number (np) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of every atom of that element. The atomic number can be used to uniquely identify ...
protons and neutrons have different masses, [7] [8] and different nuclides have different ratios of protons and neutrons. atomic masses are reduced, to different extents, by their binding energies. The ratio of atomic mass to mass number (number of nucleons) varies from 0.998 838 1346 (51) for 56 Fe to 1.007 825 031 898 (14) for 1 H.
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol. p. , H +, or 1 H + with a positive electric charge of +1 e (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately 1836 times the mass of an electron (the proton-to-electron mass ratio). Protons and neutrons, each with a mass of approximately one atomic mass ...
Almost all of the mass of an atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the electron cloud. Protons and neutrons are bound together to form a nucleus by the nuclear force. The diameter of the nucleus is in the range of 1.70 fm (1.70 × 10 −15 m [7]) for hydrogen (the diameter of a single proton) to about 11.7 fm for ...
The isospin and spin quantum numbers of the nucleon have two states each, resulting in four combinations in total. An alpha particle is composed of four nucleons occupying all four combinations, namely, it has two protons (having opposite spin) and two neutrons (also having opposite spin), and its net nuclear spin is zero.
The neutron number (symbol N) is the number of neutrons in a nuclide. Atomic number (proton number) plus neutron number equals mass number: Z + N = A. The difference between the neutron number and the atomic number is known as the neutron excess: D = N − Z = A − 2Z. Neutron number is not written explicitly in nuclide symbol notation, but ...