CUT IT UP

cut up a pizza
How do you cut up a pizza? What if you kept on cutting and cutting and cutting? What is the smallest piece you can cut? What is the smallest part of the pizza that you would still call pizza?

cut up an elephant

Elephants are made of many things. What are some of the things that make up an elephant? If you cut up an elephant, would any of the parts be another elephant?

cut up salt
Take the smallest grain of salt. Lets cut it up until we cant cut it up anymore.

salt forms in crystals

many molecules of salt make a crystal

A molecule of salt is made of two atoms

ATOMS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER

Atoms have a center, the nucleus. The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. Atoms also have electrons that orbit the nucleus just as the moon orbits the earth. Atoms are made of electrons, protons and neutrons.

Na+

We can draw simplied diagrams of atoms. The plus sign in this diagram indicates that the Sodium atom pictured has a positive charge. Sodium atoms have an even number of electrons, therefore they carry a positive charge. Some atoms have a negative charge.

more about molecules

Lets take a closer look at the atoms that make up the salt molecule. Sodium has a positive charge, and chloride has a negative charge. Atoms want to be positively charged, so the chloride atom shares an electron with the sodium atom.

Na+

Cl-

In this diagram, atoms of Sodium (Na) and Chloride (Cl) share an electron to form a molecule of salt.

ATOMS CAN FORM COMPOUNDS, MIXTURES, OR STAND ALONE AS THEY ARE.

Salt is a compound. The smallest piece of salt is made of two atoms bound into a molecule. Other compounds include sugar and water.

Gold cannot be separated into atoms of different kinds. All of the atoms in gold are gold atoms. The smallest piece of gold is a gold atom. Therefore, gold is an element. What element do you use to ll up balloons that oat in the air?

Molecules and atoms can form mixtures

Mixtures can be easily separated into molecules and atoms. Soil, ocean water and air are mixtures.

SOLUTIONS VERSUS MIXTURES

Homogenous

Heterogenous
Mixture of chocolate milk

Solution of salt water

Solution Gas-Gas Gas-Liquid Liquid-Liquid Solid-Solid

Example Air Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in soda Gasoline Metal alloys such as sterling silver (silver and copper)

elements
Weve talked about these elements: SODIUM CLORIDE GOLD HELIUM Can you name any other elements?

how many elements are there?

Sometimes scientists discover new elements. As of 2012, there are 118 elements. Only 92 of these elements exist in nature: the rest can be created by scientists in a laboratory. Look around you: everything you see is made up of one or more of the 92 elements that exist in nature. Some of these elements are gases in the air you breathe, so you cant see them. Take a deep breath: now they are in your lungs. You (and other living things) are mostly made of four elements: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.

Elements are often presented in a table called the Periodic Table of Elements.
This table presents important information about elements. You will understand the table when you know more about atoms.

More about the atom

Chemists study elements, and do experiments based on the properties of elements. This is because atoms are quite stable. They are difcult to break into smaller parts. Actually, you can break some electrons off from atoms quite easily: you just rub a balloon on your hair. If youve ever been zapped getting off from a plastic slide on the playground, then you know what a transfer of electrons feels like. Protons and neutrons are harder to extract from an atom.

Inside the atom

Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks. Quarks have funny names: up, down, top, bottom, charmed and strange. People used to think that the atom was the smallest piece of anything. Now we know that atoms can be divided into smaller pieces called quarks.

Quarks are one kind of sub-atomic particle. Maybe you can cut a pizza up until you get to the quarks.