Atomic Mass Although similar in mass, protons are positively charged, while neutrons have no charge. Therefore, the number of neutrons in an atom contributes significantly to its mass, but not to its charge.

Electrons are also important for the bonding of individual atoms together. With out this bonding force between atoms matter would not be able to interact in the many reactions and forms we see every day. This interaction between the outer electron layers of an atom is call atomic bonding.

Atoms are the basic building blocks of ordinary matter. Atoms can join together to form molecules, which in turn form most of the objects around you. Atoms are composed of particles called protons, electrons and neutrons.

About 99 percent of your body is made up of atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. You also contain much smaller amounts of the other elements that are essential for life. Nuclei are around 100,000 times smaller than the atoms they’re housed in.

A hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty space. Put another way, if a hydrogen atom were the size of the earth, the proton at its center would be about 200 meters (600 feet) across.

Going by the pure definition of the vacuum, there are no atoms in a vacuum. But things known as ‘virtual particles’ do exist in a vacuum. Also, there is the presence of dark matter, a kind of matter which does not interact with light and hence isn’t visible. So a vacuum is not technically empty.

The empty space between the atomic cloud of an atom and its nucleus is just that: empty space, or vacuum.

If there were no empty space the atom would probably not exist as there wouldn’t be any force keeping the electron-proton interaction in check resulting in zero distance between them, resulting in an infinite force of attraction between them, resulting, probably, in the electron and proton crashing into each other …

Herophilus of Chalcedon