atom: The Nucleus
The Nucleus
Almost the entire mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus, which occupies only a tiny fraction of the atom's volume. The nucleus of an atom consists of neutrons and protons, the neutron being an uncharged particle and the proton a positively charged one. Their masses are almost equal. Atoms containing the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons represent different forms, or isotopes, of the same element.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Contemporary Studies of the Atom
- Discovery of the Atom's Structure
- From Dalton to the Periodic Table
- Early Atomic Theory
- Atomic Weight and Number
- The Electrons
- The Nucleus
- Structure of the Atom
- Bibliography
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics
