Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
Furthermore, the energy needed to excite the nucleus (i.e. moving a nucleon to a higher, previously unoccupied level) is exceptionally high in such nuclei. Whenever this unoccupied level is the next after a full shell, the only way to excite the nucleus is to raise one nucleon across the gap, thus spending a large amount of energy. Otherwise ...
The atomic nucleus is a bound system of protons and neutrons. The spatial extent and shape of the nucleus depend not only on the size and shape of discrete nucleons, but also on the distance between them (the inter-nucleon distance). (Other factors include spin, alignment, orbital motion, and the local nuclear environment (see EMC effect).)
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]
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 atomic nucleus shown expanded more than 10,000 times its size relative to the atom; electrons have no measurable diameter. The Rutherford model is a name for the first model of an atom with a compact nucleus. The concept arose from Ernest Rutherford discovery of the nucleus.
The atom is said to have undergone the process of ionization. If the electron absorbs a quantity of energy less than the binding energy, it will be transferred to an excited state. After a certain time, the electron in an excited state will "jump" (undergo a transition) to a lower state.
Note how the size of the carbon appears smaller than the hydrogen. The importance of stereochemistry was not then recognised and the model is essentially topological (it should be a 3-dimensional tetrahedron). Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Joseph Le Bel introduced the concept of chemistry in three dimensions of space, that is, stereochemistry.