PHYSICAL SCIENCES
THE ATOM STRUCTURE
GRADE 10
MR. T VEZI
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to :
Explain the structure of an atom and the characteristics of its particles.
Explain the meaning of atomic number and atomic mass number.
Explain the concept of isotopes and relative atomic mass number.
OBJECTIVE 1
An atom is made up of three particles: electrons, protons and neutrons.
The nucleus is positively charged and has protons and neutrons inside it.
The negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus.
The electron is a very tiny particle with mass kg. The electron has a charge of
C.
The nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons , collectively called the
nucleons.
The proton carries a unit charge of C. The proton is much heavier than the
electron with a mass of kg.
The neutron is electrically neutral and like proton, is heavier than the electron,
with a mass of kg.
OBJECTIVE 1
The Atomic number (Z) of an atom is the number of protons in the atom.
The Atomic Mass Number (A) is the number of nucleons (protons + neutrons).
The number of neutrons (N) can be calculated by using .
A standard notation E is used to represent an atom with its atomic number and
atomic mass number. represents the iron nucleus with 26 protons and 20
neutrons ( N=A-Z)
OBJECTIVE 2
The chemical properties of an atom depends on its number of protons and the
number of electrons.
Therefore, adding or removing neutrons from an atom would not change its
chemical properties.
The atom would therefore remain on the same place on the periodic table.
For instance, no matter how many neutrons we add or remove from an atom with
6 protons , the atom would always be called carbon and have symbol C.
Atom with the same number of protons (i.e. same atomic number) but different
number of neutrons (i.e. different N, hence different A) are called isotopes.
The chemical properties of isotopes are the same but might vary in terms of how
stable their nucleus is.
We can also write elements as E-A where E is the chemical symbol and E is the
and A is the atomic mass number. Cl-35 has 17 protons and 18 neutrons ; Cl-37
has 17 protons and 20 neutrons. These are both chlorine isotopes.
OBJECTIVE 2
In nature different isotopes of an element may have different abundance %.
Their abundance can be used to calculate the average atomic mass .
Cl – 35 has 75% natural abundance and Cl – 37 has a 25% abundance.
The average atomic mass of Chlorine can be calculated as follows:
Average atomic mass .
For chlorine this is the average relative atomic mass on the periodic table.
REFLECTION
After doing the @HOME , look at the lesson objectives to ensure you have achieved
them.
OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED?
Explain the structure of an atom and the characteristics of its
particles.
Explain the meaning of atomic number and atomic mass number.
Explain the concept of isotopes and relative atomic mass number.
