<h2>What is an atom?</h2>
<p>An <strong>atom</strong> is the smallest particle of an element that has the properties of that element and can enter into a <a data-lesson="representing-chemical-change" data-subject="chemistry" data-tutorial="physical-and-chemical-change" href="https://app.ulearngo.com/chemistry/physical-and-chemical-change/representing-chemical-change">chemical</a> combination. Consider the element gold, for example. Imagine cutting a gold nugget in half, then cutting one of the halves in half, and repeating this process until a piece of gold remained that was so small that it could not be cut in half (regardless of how tiny your knife may be). This minimally sized piece of gold is an atom (from the Greek <em data-effect="italics">atomos</em>, meaning “indivisible”) (<a href="#attachment_96104">see image below</a>). This atom would no longer be gold if it were divided any further.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_96104" style="width: 800px"><a href="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/b06c8ec0-db04-4d66-83ec-8b31934f1190"><img alt="gold-atom" class="size-full wp-image-96104" height="334" src="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/b06c8ec0-db04-4d66-83ec-8b31934f1190" width="800"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">(a) This photograph shows a gold nugget. (b) A scanning-tunneling microscope (STM) can generate views of the surfaces of solids, such as this image of a gold crystal. Each sphere represents one gold atom. Image credit:- a: modification of work by United States Geological Survey; b: modification of work by “Erwinrossen”/Wikimedia Commons</p></div>
<p id="fs-idm15008032">The first suggestion that matter is composed of atoms is attributed to the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, who developed their ideas in the 5th century BCE. However, it was not until the early nineteenth century that John <span class="no-emphasis" data-type="term">Dalton</span> (1766–1844), a British schoolteacher with a keen interest in science, supported this hypothesis with quantitative measurements.</p>
<p>Since that time, repeated experiments have confirmed many aspects of this hypothesis, and it has become one of the central theories of chemistry. Other aspects of Dalton’s <a data-lesson="early-ideas-atomic-theory" data-subject="chemistry" data-tutorial="atoms-molecules-ions" href="https://app.ulearngo.com/chemistry/atoms-molecules-ions/early-ideas-atomic-theory">atomic theory</a> are still used but with minor revisions (details of Dalton’s theory are provided in the chapter on atoms and molecules).</p>
<p id="fs-idp64376128">An atom is so small that its size is difficult to imagine. One of the smallest things we can see with our unaided eye is a single thread of a spider web: These strands are about 1/10,000 of a centimeter (0.0001 cm) in diameter. Although the cross-section of one strand is almost impossible to see without a microscope, it is huge on an atomic scale.</p>
<p>A single carbon atom in the web has a diameter of about 0.000000015 centimeter, and it would take about 7000 carbon atoms to span the diameter of the strand. To put this in perspective, if a carbon atom were the size of a coin, the cross-section of one strand of spider web would be larger than a football field, which would require about 150 million carbon atom “coins” to cover it. The <a href="#attachment_96105">figure below</a> shows increasingly close microscopic and atomic-level views of ordinary cotton.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_96105" style="width: 800px"><a href="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/76fccb35-7b9f-43dd-a18d-d106b38933ab"><img alt="cotton-fiber-atoms" class="size-full wp-image-96105" height="198" src="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/76fccb35-7b9f-43dd-a18d-d106b38933ab" width="800"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">These images provide an increasingly closer view: (a) a cotton boll, (b) a single cotton fiber viewed under an optical microscope (magnified 40 times), (c) an image of a cotton fiber obtained with an electron microscope (much higher magnification than with the optical microscope); and (d and e) atomic-level models of the fiber (spheres of different colors represent atoms of different elements). Image credit:- a,b,d,e: OpenStax, Chemistry; c: modification of work by “Featheredtar”/Wikimedia Commons</p></div>
<p>An atom is so light that its mass is also difficult to imagine. A billion lead atoms (1,000,000,000 atoms) weigh about 3 × 10<sup>−13</sup> grams, a mass that is far too light to be weighed on even the world’s most sensitive balances. It would require over 300,000,000,000,000 lead atoms (300 trillion, or 3 × 10<sup>14</sup>) to be weighed, and they would weigh only 0.0000001 gram.</p>
<h2>What is a molecule?</h2>
<p>It is rare to find collections of individual atoms. Only a few elements, such as the <a data-lesson="introducing-gases" data-subject="chemistry" data-tutorial="gases" href="https://app.ulearngo.com/chemistry/gases/introducing-gases">gases</a> helium, neon, and argon, consist of a collection of individual atoms that move about independently of one another. Other elements, such as the gases hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and chlorine, are composed of units that consist of pairs of atoms (<a href="#attachment_96106">see image below</a>).</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_96106" style="width: 800px"><a href="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/3872bbc0-b540-49fe-b085-4798726b44d8"><img alt="molecules" class="size-full wp-image-96106" height="228" src="https://data.ulearngo.com/assets/3872bbc0-b540-49fe-b085-4798726b44d8" width="800"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The elements hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur form molecules consisting of two or more atoms of the same element. The compounds water, carbon dioxide, and glucose consist of combinations of atoms of different elements. Image credit: OpenStax, Chemistry</p></div>
<p>One form of the element phosphorus consists of units composed of four phosphorus atoms. The element sulfur exists in various forms, one of which consists of units composed of eight sulfur atoms. These units are called molecules.</p>
<p>A <strong>molecule</strong> consists of two or more atoms joined by strong <a data-lesson="physical-properties-and-intermolecular-forces" data-subject="chemistry" data-tutorial="organic-molecules" href="https://app.ulearngo.com/chemistry/organic-molecules/physical-properties-and-intermolecular-forces">forces</a> called chemical bonds. The atoms in a molecule move around as a unit, much like the cans of soda in a six-pack or a bunch of keys joined together on a single key ring.</p>
<p>A molecule may consist of two or more identical atoms, as in the molecules found in the elements hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, or it may consist of two or more different atoms, as in the molecules found in water. Each water molecule is a unit that contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Each glucose molecule is a unit that contains 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms, and 6 oxygen atoms.</p>
<p>Like atoms, molecules are incredibly small and light. If an ordinary glass of water were enlarged to the size of the earth, the water molecules inside it would be about the size of golf balls.</p>

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Atoms and Molecules

Chemistry generally explores the substances of which matter is composed, the investigation of their properties and reactions, and the use of such reactions to form new substances. 

Chemistry

Explore the essential ideas in chemistry, including the scientific method, laboratory skills and safety, states of matter, measurement uncertainty, models of the atom, electronic configurations, and more.


Atoms and Molecules

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