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Atoms are the building blocks of everything; they are made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons (and recently it has been discovered that these 3 things are made of quarks). Each atom is one piece on its own, floating around and attaching to other atoms.

An element is a substance that is made up of only one type of atom. Once the atoms cling to each other they form different substances; if only one type of atom (which means that all atoms have the same number of electrons) is combined then it forms an element. If multiple different atoms cling together it forms other substances.

Ex) When atoms with only 1 electron gather they form the element Hydrogen

When atoms with 8 electrons gather they form the element Oxygen

When 2 atoms with only 1 electron cling to one atom with 8 electrons, you end up with 2 Hydrogen atoms that have now mixed with 1 oxygen atom which forms the compound H2O or water; this compound (water) is no longer an element.

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Rubye Mante

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1y ago
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6y ago

atoms are what make up an element
Elements are the items on the Periodic Table; gold, carbon, oxygen, things like that.

An atom is the smallest possible unit of that element. If you put a bunch of identical atoms together, you still have that element.

Another way of putting it; if I had a bar of gold, and I kept splitting it into smaller and smaller bits, eventually I would have gold nuggets, then gold slivers, and finally gold atoms.

can we call sodium an atom and element both?
An element is a specific atom with a set atomic number.

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13y ago

Atoms are the building blocks of everything; they are made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons (and recently it has been discovered that these 3 things are made of quarks). Each atom is one piece on its own, floating around and attaching to other atoms.

An element is a substance that is made up of only one type of atom. Once the atoms cling to each other they form different substances; if only one type of atom (which means that all atoms have the same number of electrons) is combined then it forms an element. If multiple different atoms cling together it forms other substances.

Ex) When atoms with only 1 electron gather they form the element Hydrogen

When atoms with 8 electrons gather they form the element Oxygen

When 2 atoms with only 1 electron cling to one atom with 8 electrons, you end up with 2 Hydrogen atoms that have now mixed with 1 oxygen atom which forms the compound H2O or water; this compound (water) is no longer an element.

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8y ago

An atom is the smallest piece of an element. Said another way, and element is made up one and only one kind of atoms.

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9y ago

Atoms are smaller

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Q: What is the difference between an atom and element?
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The difference between the atomic number of an element and its atomic mass?

Atomic mass is the mass of an atom in atomic mass units, and includes protons, neutrons, and electrons; and atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom.


What is the difference between a parent element and a daughter element?

biology


What is the difference between smallest particle of element and smallest particle of compound?

To understand, you first need to understand the difference between an element and a compound. An element is any element from the Periodic table. For example, oxygen. A compound is a substance in which more than one element are bonded chemically. This is not to be confused with a mixture, which is simple a mixture of substances with no chemical bonding. An example of a compound would be water, consisting of hydrogen and oxygen bonded together.Now that we've established to difference between an element and a compound, we can explore what the smallest particle of each is. The "smallest particle" is the smallest you can go while still keeping the properties of the original substance.The smallest particle of an element would be an atom. But when dealing with compounds, if you break them down to atoms, then those atoms don't have the same properties as a compound. The smallest particle of a compound is a molecule. In our example of water, a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, chemically bonded together. The molecule, consisting of three atoms, has the chemical properties of water. But if you break it down so you just have an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, none of them would have the properties of the original compound (water).Thus, the smallest particle of an element is an atom, and the smallest particle of a compound is a molecule. The difference between the two is that an atom is an atom, and a molecule is two or more atoms chemically bonded.


What does the atomic mass of an element show you?

The Atomic Mass is the total mass of all the sub atomic particles (i.e. the mass of the whole atom): Electrons, Neutrons and Protons. Therefore, it identifies isotopes (as they have different number of sub atomic particales - even for the same element) and thus total mass differs. There can be a fair amount of difference between the Atomic Mass of the most common isotope of an element and its Atomic Weight - which is averaged (weighted average). This makes a difference for single atom calculations, but makes little real difference in bulk calculations.


How do isotopes on an element differ from one antoher?

The difference is the number of neutrons contained in the atom's nucleus

Related questions

What Difference between element and atom?

an atom is the smallest unit of an element, but an element is a pure substance


What is the main difference between an atom of one element and an atom of another element?

I do not know i am gust a kid and this is my homework.


What is the difference between iron and an atom of iron?

NOTHING! An atom is just another name for an element!!


What is the difference between the element of gold and an atom of gold?

An element of gold is made up of many gold atoms, and an atom of gold is only one atom.


What is the difference between an element of gold and a atom of gold?

An element of gold is made up of many gold atoms, and an atom of gold is only one atom.


What is the difference between a hydrogen atom and atomic hydrogen?

The difference between a hydrogen atom and atomic hydrogen is that the "hydrogen atom" represents one atom of the chemical element hydrogen. Atomic hydrogen are isolated hydrogen atoms.


What is the difference between an atom element?

An atom is a particle the smallest of an element. An element is a substance made up of many atoms of ONE kind (or molecules consisting of two or more identic atoms)


How Difference atom and element?

atom and elements are different because one atom makes an element and a element is a pure substance and a atom is a basic particle


What is the difference between an atom a molecule and an element?

An atom is a nucleus of protons and neutrons with electrons orbiting around. An element is an atom with a specific amount of protons, neutrons, and electrons. A molecule is a bunch of atoms stuck together.


What is the difference between the number of protons in an atom and that element's atomic number?

Nothing, it's the same thing.


What is the difference about an element and a compound?

Element's have only one atom, while compund's have more that one atom.


Difference between a compound and a element?

An element is a substance that contains only one type of atom (e.i. Carbon). A compound is a substance that is constructed of multiple types of atom (i.e. water [H2O]).