CHAPTER THREE

THE ATOMIC WORLD

made of even smaller parts called
subatomic particles.

OBJECTIVES:
Two of these subatomic particles
are found together at the center of the
1) Describe the science of chemistry.
atom in what is called the nucleus.
2) Define and describe matter and
These particles are the proton and
elements.
neutron. They have about the same
3) Describe the atom and the subatomic
mass but different electrical charges.
particles.
The proton has a positive electrical
4) Discuss and identify the atomic
charge, but the neutron has no charge.
number.
In motion around the nucleus is
5) Explain and use atomic symbols and
the third subatomic particle; the electron.
molecular formulas.
Electrons have a negative charge and
6) Discuss the significance of isotopes.
are attracted to the positively charged
7) Describe and discuss the electron
protons. Electrons have very little mass
cloud model of the atom.
compared to protons and neutrons. It
8) Discuss how electrons fill the orbitals
would take almost 2,000 electrons to
or shells of the atom.
9) Describe the formation of both ionic NEUTRON
and covalent chemical bonds.
10) Discuss and describe the various
states of matter and the changes from
-
one to another.
+
3-1 THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF
EVERYTHING
ELECTRON
PROTON
Chemistry is the study of matter
and it is chemistry that we will learn weigh the same as one proton.
about in this chapter. Matter is Atoms have equal numbers of
anything that takes up space, and the protons and electrons. This gives them
basic unit of matter is the atom. This the same number of negative charges as
comes from the Greek word atomos, positive ones. This means that atoms
which means indivisible, or can’t be cut. have a neutral charge; they are neither
About a hundred million atoms positive nor negative.
could fit across the width of your little Each atom has an atomic
finger. As small as atoms are, they are number. The atomic number is the
number of protons it contains. This will

1
 also be the same number as the number
of electrons.
An element is a substance
composed of just one kind of atom. We
identify each of the elements with their
atomic symbol. This is a one or two
letter symbol such as O for oxygen or Na
for sodium.
Atoms of the same element may
differ from each other in one important
way. They may have different numbers
of neutrons. Atoms of the same element
with different numbers of neutrons are
called isotopes. Since neutrons have no
charge they do not change how an atom
reacts with other atoms, but they will
change the weight and they may make
the atoms radioactive.
TWO ISOTOPES OF HYDROGEN
ON THE LEFT IT HAS ONE NEUTRON
ON THE RIGHT THERE ARE TWO
3-2 ORBITS AND CLOUDS
It was once thought that the
electrons orbited the nucleus the way
planets orbit the sun. This is an easy
way to imagine them and we still use
this concept when we draw a simplified
atom. A more realistic view of the atom,
though, shows the electrons forming a
“cloud” around the nucleus.
THE ELECTRON MOVES AROUND
THE NUCLEUS IN EVERY DIRECTION
VERY FAST AND FORMS A “CLOUD”
This electron cloud best
represents the electrons’ motion because
it is traveling near the speed of light and
moving around a very small object in all
directions. If you could somehow see it,
the electron would form a blur around
the nucleus.
Additionally, the modern study
of physics has shown that we never can
really be sure of where the electron is
anyway. It is all a matter of probability.
In other words, we know that an electron
can probably be found in a specific orbit
around the nucleus, but it is not always
there.
The electrons do generally stay
in those cloud forming orbits, and those
orbits will be very important for how the
atoms act and react with other atoms.
We refer to each of these orbits as an
orbital or electron shell.
Each shell can hold only so many
electrons. So as different atoms have a
greater number of electrons they have
more of these electron shells. For
example the first shell can only hold two
electrons, the second eight, and the third
can hold 18 electrons. Not all the shells
will be filled. The shells are filled in
order so that if there are enough
electrons the first shell fills, then the
second and so on.
For example Oxygen has eight
electrons. Two of them fit into the first
AN OXYGEN ATOM
orbital. The remaining six fit in the
2
second shell leaving room for two more. However, this changes something
Gold has 79 electrons. There are 2 in the very important. Since these atoms will
first shell, 8 in the second, 18 in the have different numbers of electrons than
third, 32 in the fourth, 18 in the fifth, and protons they will have a charge.
one in the sixth. Remember that electrons have a negative
Another amazing thing about charge and protons a positive charge,
atoms is just how much empty space and that atoms do not have a charge
there is in one. The orbits of the because they have the same number of
electrons are very far out from the protons as electrons. Now that they have
nucleus compared to the size of an atom. a positive or negative charge we no
If an electron was the size of a basketball longer call them atoms, we call them
the nucleus would be the size of a car, ions.
and the car would be over 20 miles
away. Everything is mostly empty
space. SODIUM ATOM CHLORINE ATOM
The electrons’ negative charge is ATOM
what keeps objects from passing right
through one another. As one atom’s
electrons get near another atom’s
electrons they push each other apart.
This force is so powerful that separate
objects don’t really touch. For example,
the electrons in your pants are pushing
on the electrons in your seat and keeping THE ELECTRON IS TRANSFERRED
you floating above the seat at a very,
very small distance.
SODIUM ION (Na+) CHLORINE ION (Cl-)
3-3 GETTING TOGETHER

Chemical compounds can form

when two or more elements come
together. There are two ways that this
happens. Atoms can form an ionic bond
or a covalent bond. How and why these 1 LESS ELECTRON
two types of bonds form takes us back to 1 LESS ELECTRON
the number of electrons in the outermost 1 EXTRA ELECTRON
orbital. 1 EXTRA ELECTRON
An ionic bond forms if the
number of electrons in the outermost
shells of two atoms is very different; if
one is almost full and the other is almost
empty. In this case the atom that almost
has a full orbital will take the electron
from the other atom. This will fill both
their outermost shells and they will
become stable.
AN IONIC BOND FORMS BETWEEN POSITIVE
AND NEGATIVE IONS

3
 For example, sodium (Na) has
only one electron out of eight in its
outermost shell and chlorine (Cl) has
seven out of eight. The electron from
sodium is transferred to chlorine. This
leaves sodium with one more proton
than electron, and chlorine with one
more electron than proton. This makes
sodium a positive ion (Na+) and chlorine
a negative ion (Cl-). A bond now forms
between the two ions because of their
opposite charges; opposites do attract.
Covalent bonds form in a very
different way. In a covalent bond
electrons are not transferred, they are
shared. When the outermost shells are
not very full or very empty electrons will
be shared. They will orbit both the atom
they come from and the atom it bonds to.
This way the outer most orbital is full for
much of the time and the atom will be
stable. This collection of atoms into a
covalent bond makes what is called a
molecule.
OXYGEN NEEDS TWO ELECTONS AND EACH
HYDROGEN NEEDS ONE ELECTRON
H H
O 3-4 CHANGE OF STATE
A COVALENT BOND FORMS AND THE ATOMS
SHARE ELECTRONS.
H2O
An example of a molecule is
water. As you know, water is made of
two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen
atom. Hydrogens have one electron in
an outermost orbital that can hold two,
and oxygen has six in an orbital that can
hold eight. The oxygen needs two more
electrons and the hydrogens each need
one. The hydrogens each share their one
electron with the oxygen and the oxygen
shares two of its electrons with the two
hydrogens. This means that all three
atoms will have full outer shells much of
the time and therefore will be stable.
Additionally, since there is no change in
the numbers of electrons and protons the
molecule has no charge.
As you have seen before, there is
a code for atoms and molecules. We use
one or two letters as a symbol of the
element. When atoms are combined into
molecules we use those letters to
represent the different elements in the
molecules. To know how many atoms
are in the molecule we put a subscript
after the atom’s symbol telling how
many there are. If there is only one of a
type of atom then we don’t put any
number after it. For example water’s
chemical formula is H2O. This means
that each molecule of water is made of
two hydrogen atoms bonded to one
oxygen atom.
Atoms can be built into
molecules and also taken apart, but there
are other ways matter can be changed;
we can change its state. When matter
changes state it does not become another
element, molecule, or ion. There are
three states of matter that we normally
see. Things can be a solid, a liquid, or a
gas.
4
 In a solid the molecules are
tightly packed together and move very
little. They have a fixed volume and
shape. In a liquid the molecules move
more but are still bound to one another.
They have a fixed volume but take the
shape of their container. In a gas the
molecules move easily past and around
one another. They have no fixed volume
or shape.
SOLID
LIQUID
GAS
Water, for example, is easily
found in all three states. In the solid
form it is ice. The liquid form is, of
course, liquid water. The gas form is
water vapor (steam). When water
changes from one state to another it is
still water. It does not change
chemically.
To change state we change the
pressure or the temperature. For
example, we add heat to melt ice and
turn it into liquid water. We can change
liquid water into ice by taking away
heat. We can also change liquid water
into a gas by heating it, or condense
water vapor into a liquid by removing
heat from it. Things are not really
cooled, they just have heat removed.
Heat is the motion of molecules, so
when we add heat we make the
molecules move more. When we
remove heat we slow down the motion
of molecules.
The temperature that liquid water
becomes solid water is the same at
which solid water becomes a liquid. It
happens at 0° C or 32° F. Water
changes state between a liquid and a gas
at 100° C or 212° F.
This change of state absorbs or
gives off a lot of energy. This is why we
add ice cubes to a drink to cool it. The
heat in the drink moves into the ice and
works to raise the ices temperature to
something more than 0° C. Since it
takes a great deal of energy to do that it
removes a great deal of heat from the
drink.
HEAT
GAS
LIQUID
SOLID
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. Chemistry is the study of matter.
2. Matter is anything that takes up space
and the basic unit of matter is the atom.
3. Atoms are composed of subatomic
particles called protons, neutrons, and
electrons.
4. Protons have a positive charge,
electrons a negative charge, and neutrons
have no charge.
5. The number of protons in an atom is
its atomic number.
6. There are always the same number of
protons and electrons in an atom so an
atom has no charge.
7. Atoms of the same kind, with the
same atomic number, are called
elements, and there is a symbol for every
element.
8. Atoms of the same element may
differ in their number of neutrons; they
may be isotopes.
9. Electrons don’t really orbit the
nucleus of an atom like planets orbiting
the sun. They form an electron cloud.
10. Each orbital, or shell, can hold up to
a certain number of electrons in it.
11. Atoms are mostly empty space.
12. Atoms do not touch each other
because of the negative charges of the
electrons in their orbits.
13. When two or more elements come
together they form a chemical
compound.
14. There are two types of atomic
bonds; ionic and covalent.
15. Atoms become stable, in other
words less reactive, when their
outermost electron shell is full.
16. Ionic bonds form between atoms
with very different numbers of electrons
in their outermost shell. In ionic bonds
electrons are transferred from one atom
to the other.
17. Covalent bonds form between atoms
that do not have very different numbers
of electrons in their outermost shell. In
covalent bonds electrons are shared.
18. Atoms covalently bonded together
form molecules.
19. The number of atoms of an element
in a molecule is represented by a number
after the symbol in the form of a
subscript.
20. Matter can change state between a
solid, liquid, or gas.
21. A solid has a fixed volume and
shape, and its molecules move very
little.
22. A liquid has a fixed volume but
takes the shape of its container. Its
molecules move more than a solids do.
23. A gas has no fixed volume or shape
and its molecules move more than a
liquids do.
24. To change state we must change the
temperature or the pressure.
25. Heat is added or removed to change
temperature, but there is no such thing as
adding or removing cold.
6
CHAPTER VOCABULARY
Chemistry: study of matter
Matter: anything that takes up space
Atom: basic unit of matter, the smallest
unique particle
Subatomic particles: parts that make up
an atom
Nucleus: center of atom containing
protons and neutrons
Proton: positively charged subatomic
particle in the nucleus
Neutron: subatomic particle in nucleus
without a charge
Electron: negatively charged particle
orbiting the nucleus of an atom
Atomic number: unique to each type of
atom, based on number of protons in the
atom
Element: substance composed of one
type of atom
Atomic symbol: one or two letter
symbol representing an element
Isotopes: atoms of the same element that
differ in their weight due to a different
number of neutrons
Radioactive: to give off energy due to
the breakdown of atoms
Electron cloud: representation of the
motion of electrons around an atom,
called a cloud because the speed and
motion of the electron almost has it
everywhere all the time in its orbit
Probability: the likelihood of an event’s
occurrence
Orbital: set orbit that electrons follow
around the nucleus
Electron shell: the shell-like orbit that
electrons follow around the nucleus
Chemical compounds: product of the
bond of two or more elements
Ionic bond: bond formed when an
electron is transferred between two
atoms giving them each a charge
Covalent bond: bond formed when
atoms share electrons in their outermost
electron shell
Stable: when an atom is less reactive
with its outermost electron shell filled
Ions: what atoms become when they
lose or gain electrons and, therefore,
have a charge
Molecule: collection of atoms held
together by covalent bonds
State: condition of matter; it is a solid,
liquid, or gas
Solid: substance that has a fixed volume
and shape
Liquid: substance that has a fixed
volume but not a fixed shape
Gas: substance without a fixed volume
or shape
Heat: motion in molecules or atoms