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Home → Articles → Chemistry → Atom Fun Facts !

Atom Fun Facts !

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Lynn Charles Rathbun

The word “atom” comes from the ancient Greek word meaning ”undivided.” They thought that an atom couldn’t be cut into anything smaller, which we now know is not exactly right.

Atoms are mostly empty space and scientists think that there might be 200 or more subatomic particles. Some of them we already know about— neutrons, electrons, protons, quarks—but others are still waiting to be discovered.

There are about 2 sextillion (1021) atoms of oxygen in a drop of water.

There are 92 different elements (atoms) in nature. Scientists have made the rest of them in the laboratory. The first one to be made was technetium, which has an atomic weight of 43.

A human hair is about 100 nanometers across and that is about 1,000,000 carbon atoms.

Every year your body replaces about 98% of its atoms.

The mass of a proton is essentially the same as that of a neutron, but 1,840 times greater than the mass of an electron.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and there are about 10 million known compounds that can be made with carbon.

There are a total of 15 elements whose atomic symbol is the same as a postal code for a U.S. state: AL-aluminum and Alabama, MN-manganese and Minnesota, MO-molybdenum and Missouri, IN-indium and Indiana, LA-lanthanum and Louisiana, ND-neodymium and North Dakota, PA-protactinium and Pennsylvania, MD- mendelevium and Maryland, MT-meitnerium and Montana, NE-neon and Nebraska, AR-argon and Arkansas, CA-calcium and California, SC-scandium and South Carolina, CO-cobalt and Colorado, and GA-gallium and Georgia.

 

← The Periodic Table Staying in Shape with S-Layers →

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Prof. Carl Batt Cornell University, Editor
Emily Maletz, Emily Maletz Graphic Design, Designer
Lynn Rathbun, CNF Laboratory Manager

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