But for atoms they are always neutral and the number of protons equals the number of electrons. Atoms with positive or negative charges are called ions. While if it had more electrons than protons, it would have an overall negative charge. If there were more protons than electrons, then it would have a positive charge overall. (We’ll see in a later video the various orbits these electrons can occupy.) In a neutral atom, the number of positively-charge protons must equal the number of negatively-charged electrons. The protons and neutrons live in the nucleus, while the electrons are orbiting the nucleus similar to the way planets orbit a star. Within the atom are three basic subatomic particles: protons (p +), neutrons (n 0), and electrons (e –). We abbreviate the proton as p + because it has a positive charge, the neutron as n 0 because it is neutral, and the electron as e – because it has a negative charge. Then this would be the volume of the nucleus. In that gigantic stadium the nucleus would only be the size of a small marble sitting on the 50-yard line! One analogy is to imagine the atom is the size of a football stadium. The nucleus has a diameter of 10 -14 m, so it is about 10,000 times smaller than the volume of the atom as a whole. Keep in mind that’s like saying 0.0000000001 meters, or about one-billionth of a meter across! But within this already extremely small atom is an even smaller region called the nucleus. The atom is very tiny, having a diameter of about 10 -10 meters.
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