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A Model of the Atom |
This is a model of an atom. The green part is the atom's center, or its nucleus. The nucleus is made up of particles called protons (with positive electric charge) and neutrons (electrically neutral). Today, scientists think that protons and neutrons are made of even smaller particles called quarks (shown in red). The white particles are electrons. They have a negative charge and orbit the nucleus (much like the Earth orbits the Sun). |
A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF
This is a model of an atom. The green part is the atom's center, its nucleus. The nucleus is made up of particles called protons (with positive electric charge) and neutrons (electrically neutral). Today, scientists think that protons and neutrons are made of even smaller particles called quarks (shown in red). The white particles are electrons which have a negative electric charge. They orbit the nucleus at a considerable distance (much greater than shown in this image). |
A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF
This is a model of an atom. The green region represents the nucleus, made up of protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are composed of quarks, shown in red. The white particles are electrons. The distance of particles in the picture is highly distorted; in real atoms the radius of the electron orbit is several orders of magnitude larger than the nuclear radius. |
A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF
Last modified April 18, 2003 by the Windows Team
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