The Nuclear Atom Flashcards
Subatomic particles
particles smaller than an atom that help give atoms their structure
Positively charged particles with mass, the number can be used to identify and element
Protons
Particles with mass but no charged that can vary in isotopes
Neutrons
Negatively charged particles with negligible mass, occupy space outside of the nucleus and dictate atom behavior
Electrons
What did the Rutherford gold foil experiment show?
The nucleus is small in comparison to the atom, is highly dense, contains most of the atoms mass and has a positive charge
Atomic number
The identity of the element and the number of protons
Atomic mass
The number of proton + neutrons
Chemical symbol
the one to two letter abbreviation identifying the name of the element
Ion charge
The number of protons - the number of electrons
Isotope
different atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons (protons NEVER vary)
Relative atomic mass
The weighted average of the mass of all the isotopes for an element, by natural abundance
Natural abundance
The percentage of atoms of a given element that have the given mass
Enrichment
a process by which a specific isotope is concentrated in a sample- important for nuclear reactions
Mass spectrometer
an instrument used to detect the relative abundance of isotopes in a sample
Mass spectra
graphs that show the weight and abundance of isotopes for a sample
