Saturday, November 14, 2020

Basic Physics Terminology

Atom

It comes from the Greek word "Atomos". "A" means not and "tomos" means cut so atom means indivisible (unable to be divided). It's the basic building block of a matter. Atoms can join together to form a molecule.

Electric charge 

It can be negative (electron) or positive (proton). While opposite charges attract each other, the same charges repel each other.


Particle

A particle is the small piece of anything (from vocabulary.com). For example, oxygen and hydrogen are particles. A molecule can also be referred to as a particle. An atom is made up of three (sub) particles: neutron, proton, and electron.


Molecule

It's a particle made up of two or more atoms that are chemically bonded together. The number of atoms within a molecule is a determined number, and it identifies the particle. For example, a water molecule consists of two atoms of hydrogen linked by covalent bond to the same atom of oxygen.



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