What is Matter?

- Everything we can see in the night sky is made up of the same matter as things here on
Earth, just in different combinations
- If we break matter down into smaller and smaller pieces, what do we get? Start with a
bottle of water:
- Water (H2O) is a molecule: the smallest portion of a substance that retains the
properties of that substance
- A molecule is made up of two or more components called atoms: for example, a water
molecule is made up of 2 hydrogen atoms (H) and 1 oxygen atom (O): H2O
- Every atom consists of two parts:
- One or more electrons - fundamental particles with a negative electric charge (-
1). They are “smeared out” in a cloud around ...
- The nucleus: ≈ 100,000 times smaller than the electron cloud, but with ≈ 100,000 times
more mass. Every nucleus (plural: nuclei) is a combination of…
- Protons: 2,000 times more massive than electrons, and with a positive
electric charge (+1). Different elements have different numbers of protons
in their nuclei (hydrogen has 1, oxygen has 8).
- Neutrons: 0.1% more massive than protons, with no electric charge.
- Aside: quarks [fundamental particles] make up protons, neutrons, and
certain other subatomic particles.
- Different isotopes of a given element have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.
For example, the element Carbon has 6 protons, but comes in three isotopes with
different numbers of neutrons: carbon-12 (6 protons + 6 neutrons), carbon-13 (6 protons
+ 7 neutrons), or carbon-14 (6 protons + 8 neutrons). Unstable isotopes turn into
different, stable isotopes via radioactive decay.
- Atoms are neutral (# of protons = # of electrons); when some electrons are added or
taken away, you have a negative or positive ion.
- How do we know all this?
- Shooting positively charged helium nuclei at a thin foil of gold atoms, Lord
Rutherford (1871-1937) saw most of the helium nuclei pass right through the foil,
but some ricochet in other directions (even backwards). He concluded that atoms
have very small, positively charged nuclei and that in rare collisions, the helium
and gold nuclei would ricochet off each other and fly in all directions.
- Today we can image the electron clouds of individual atoms:

Review: What is Matter?

- All physical matter consists of atoms
- Every atom is composed of a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons
- Nuclei consist of protons, which have positive electric charge, and neutrons, which have
zero electric charge. Electrons have a negative electric charge
- All massive particles feel the force of gravity, but gravity is not the only force.
- All charged particles feel the electric or electromagnetic force: opposite electric charges
attract each other, and like electric charges repel each other
- So: atoms are held together by the attractive electric force between protons and
electrons. So are molecules, and all physical objects
- What holds positively charged protons together in a nucleus when the electromagnetic
force is trying to keep the protons apart? Gravity is too weak to do so, so there must be
a third force: the strong nuclear force
- Protons and neutrons are attracted to each other by the strong nuclear force. (There is
also a weak nuclear force, which is responsible for some radioactive decays.) The strong
force means that nuclei which have about as many neutrons as protons are stable
isotopes; other nuclei are unstable isotopes which undergo radioactive decay and
become stable nuclei