These past few days in class, Mr. Calvert has been teaching us what atoms are and how they work. Yesterday, he introduced us to the periodic table.
The periodic table seems very complicated! There are a LOT of elements. Anyway, I learned that an atom – which is incredibly small – is made up of even smaller pieces! Isn’t that crazy?! It’s made up of electrons, which are negative charges, protons, which are positive charges, and neutrons, which are neutral.
Neutrons and protons are in the center of the atom, which is called the nucleus. Outside of the nucleus are the electrons. If two protons are next to each other, they’ll kill each other because they’re both positive charges. So, neutrons keep protons from killing each other by being in between them.
I think that atoms are really cool. It’s amazing how everything is made up of something so small. Oh and fun fact: If a grapefruit was the size of the earth, we’d be able to see atoms the size of blueberries! That shows how small they are.