Q. What are the characteristics of protons neutrons and electrons?
Key Concepts
- Atoms are made of extremely tiny particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons.
- Protons and neutrons are in the center of the atom, making up the nucleus.
- Electrons surround the nucleus.
- Protons have a positive charge.
- Electrons have a negative charge.
Q. Where are the properties of protons neutrons and electrons?
nucleus
Q. What similarities do protons and neutrons have?
Like protons, neutrons are bound into the atom’s nucleus as a result of the strong nuclear force. Protons and neutrons have approximately the same mass, but they are both much more massive than electrons (approximately 2,000 times as massive as an electron).
Q. What are the similarities and differences between neutrons and electrons?
Electrons are different from neutrons and protons because the Electrons are outside of the atom getting held in orbit by the electromagnetic force while the Neutrons and Protons are what the atom is made up of. The difference between protons and neutrons are that one has a positive charge and one has a neutral charge.
Q. Can an Electron become a proton?
No, electrons cannot become protons because it violates charge conservation. Scott Soloway, Degree in math and physics, but majored in pinball. No, but an electron is involved in the process of a neutron decaying into a proton.
Q. What happens when electrons get excited?
When an atom is in an excited state, the electron can drop all the way to the ground state in one go, or stop on the way in an intermediate level. Electrons do not stay in excited states for very long – they soon return to their ground states, emitting a photon with the same energy as the one that was absorbed.
Q. How do you know if an electron is excited?
An easy way to determine if the electron is in the excited state is to compare it to its ground state. If you see electrons have been “moved” to a higher orbital before filling the lower orbital, then that atom is in an excited state.
