How can an atom have no charge?

Answer 1

Any proton that is floating around will attract an electron and then it will 'be' hydrogen. To make deuterium (one neutron) you need to slam two hydrogens together hard enough to make them stick (think about pushing the two N ends of magnets together if they had glue on them - if you pushed to lightly they would repel each other and never stick. But if you pushed them hard enough you would get the glue to stick - this is kind of like the nuclear force (glue) and electrostatic force (repulsion)). So basically it is much easier to make Hydrogen than Deuterium - everything pretty much starts out as hydrogen and is then smashed together in suns/super novae etc to make all the other elements. Part of why there is so little Deuterium compared to, say, carbon is that it is easier to combine a deuterium and hydrogen atom to make Helium3 than it is to smash the two protons(H) together to make deuterium in the first place. (Like a bath tub that is being filled more slowly than it is being emptied - there is always a little water (Deuterium) but there will never be very much). On the other hand the processes that make carbon are easier than the processes that use it - so the carbon 'bathtub' fills up and we get a large amount of carbon hanging around the universe.

The arrangement of a proton with an orbiting electron is energetically stable without a Neutron.

Answer 2

Hydrogen has the atomic number of 1 and the relative atom mass of 1.00794

The most common isotope of hydrogen protium have no neutrons and make up almost all of the hydrogen on earth (this is why the relative mass is close to 1).

No neutrons is needed in protium because it is stable without any neutrons.

The other stable isotope of hydrogen deuterium does in fact carry 1 neutron and 1 proton in its nucleus.

Deuterium found as hydrogen in water molecules are called heavy water and used in nuclear reactors among other things.

So hydrogen may have neutrons but mostly it doesn't because its most common isotope is stable without neutrons.

Answer 3

Hydrogen exists as three different isotopes and they are H-1, H-2 and H-3.

H-1 is hydrogen with a proton in the nucleus and exists in nature as H2. This is the most common form of hydrogen and makes up 99.985% of all hydrogen on earth.

H-2, also known as deuterium, has one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. Deuterium makes up 0.015% of all hydrogen on earth.

H-3, also known as tritium, has one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. Tritium is a radioactive isotope produced in nuclear reactors and has a halflife of about 12 years.

So while the most common form of hydrogen has no neutrons in its nucleus, other isotopes do.

Heavier isotopes of hydrogen with even more neutrons have been made in the lab using particle accelerators, but they are so unstable and radioactive that they have halflives measured on the order of femtoseconds and thus decay almost instantly.

Answer 4

An atom can have no charge when it has an equal number of protons (positive charge) and electrons (negative charge). This balance of positive and negative charges cancels out, resulting in a neutral overall charge for the atom.

Answer 5

Hydrogen may exist without electron only above 5000 degree celsius.

Answer 6

If an atom has an equal number of protons and electrons, it has a neutral charge.