Can the number of neutrons or electrons in an atom of an element change?

Answer 1

If you take a proton away from an element, the whole element will change. For example, you take away one proton from Mercury, then you would have gold. People have tried this for many years but so for it's impossible. If you change the number of protons in a atom, it would change the whole substance.

Answer 2

No, if the number of protons changes, the element changes

Of course Carbon-14 will undergo radioactive decay to form nitrogen-14 via beta decay where a neutron is converted to a proton with the emission of an electron. This is sort of an example of the number of protons changing - but once it changes, the atom is no longer carbon - it is nitrogen at that point.

Answer 3

No. Changing the number of protons in an atom would lead to a different element(If that's possible) Changing the number of neutrons in an atom would give a different isotope of the same element (e.g carbon-12 and carbon-13 and chlorine-35 and chlorine-37).

Answer 4

Yes, electrons can change, that is what is called an ion. Positively charged ions have lost an electron, so there are more protons then electrons, elements lose their electrons at varying levels of difficulty, but hydrogen loses an electron fairly easily to become what is called H+. Negatively charged ions have gained an electron, and so have one more electron then proton, again elements accept electrons at varying amounts of difficulty, and a varying amounts at a time. Hydrogen again likes to accept electrons to have a full first valence shell, and becomes H-.

The number of neutrons can also change, these are called isotopes. One example of an isotope is plutonium-239. Plutonium must be made an isotope before it can be used for nuclear weapons, but making an isotope is very difficult, thankfully plutonium-239 is a byproduct of the reaction in a nuclear reactor. Plutonium-239 is the most important of the unstable isotopes for plutonium.

Answer 5

No. All atoms of the same element have the same number of protons in their nuclei. The number of protons identifies an element and is called its atomic number. However, the number of neutrons in the atomic nucleus can vary, and this is what creates different isotopes of the same element.

Answer 6

no because if number of protons changes then atom changes. and atom is classified according to its number of protons.

Answer 7

No. Never Ever. EVER. You would be talking about a totally different element.

Unless it's radioactive...but that's a whole different story.

Answer 8

No. If the number of protons were to change, it would no longer be carbon.

Answer 9

Yes, the number of electrons in an atom can change through chemical reactions, but the number of neutrons in an atom typically remains constant unless the atom undergoes a nuclear reaction.