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Diagram of a helium atom, showing the electron probability density as shades of gray. The atomic radius of a chemical element is a measure of the size of its atom, usually the mean or typical distance from the center of the nucleus to the outermost isolated electron. Since the boundary is not a well-defined physical entity, there are various ...
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 nucleus can also be modified through bombardment by high energy subatomic particles or photons. If this modifies the number of protons in a nucleus, the atom changes to a different chemical element. [47] [48]
The problem of defining a radius for the atomic nucleus has some similarity to that of defining a radius for the entire atom; neither has well defined boundaries.However, basic liquid drop models of the nucleus imagine a fairly uniform density of nucleons, theoretically giving a more recognizable surface to a nucleus than an atom, the latter being composed of highly diffuse electron clouds ...
Under some definitions, the value of the radius may depend on the atom's state and context. [1] Atomic radii vary in a predictable and explicable manner across the periodic table. For instance, the radii generally decrease rightward along each period (row) of the table, from the alkali metals to the noble gases; and increase down each group ...
The negatively charged electron has a mass of about 1 / 1836 of that of a hydrogen atom. The remainder of the hydrogen atom's mass comes from the positively charged proton. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in its nucleus. Neutrons are neutral particles having a mass slightly greater than that of the proton.
In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number (nucleon number). Until the 1960s, nucleons were thought to be elementary particles, not made up of smaller parts.
The simple spherical approximation of nuclear size and shape provides at best a textbook introduction to nuclear size and shape. [6] The unusual cosmic abundance of alpha nuclides has inspired geometric arrangements of alpha particles as a solution to nuclear shapes, although the atomic nucleus generally assumes a prolate spheroid shape.