03.01 Atomic Structure & Periodic Table

So on this slide we have 4 photos depicting the 4 phases of matter, a solid, liquid, gas and plasma. And all matter is made up of atoms, which are the smallest form of an element. 

And if we were to look up close at an atom (of any type) we would see it is made up of three main parts. In the center or nucleus of an atom, there are protons which have a positive charge and neutrons which have no charge and spinning around that nucleus are tiny particles called electrons that are negatively charged.

  So all matter is made up of atoms and atoms are the smallest form of an element, and if you look at this table known as the periodic table of elements you can see there are about 118 different types of elements that exist and are listed here.  This table arranges each element in a very specific order of an increasing number of protons. Each element has a unique number of protons and when we look at the arrangement of elements of the table there are 18 columns known as groups and each column happens to share similar properties. In addition, each element in the same row known as periods (7 in total) similar properties exist in each row/period.

If you look closely at each element on the table you can see each element has a whole number known as its atomic number which is equal to the number of protons in that element. You will also typically see the elements abbreviation and its atomic mass which is typically a decimal number that is equal to the number of protons and number of neutrons. So you can see here Hydrogen is abbreviated with a capital H, it’s atomic number is 1, so it has one proton and its atomic mass is 1.008. Additionally, you can see the  Bohr model on the right shows the nucleus in red and it has one electron spinning around the nucleus.

So in summary atoms are the smallest part of an element. Each atom is made up of 3 parts, protons, neutrons and electrons. All known elements have been arranged on the table of periodic elements which shows shared patterns and relationships based on the columns and rows they are aligned in. Each element on the periodic table has a unique atomic number which represents the number of protons the element has. Additionally, each element has an atomic mass that is comprised of the number of protons and neutrons.

And this concludes our review of atomic structure and the periodic table. Thank you for joining us. Now go out and be your best self today and happy nursing!