EL1: Where do the elements come from?

EL1: Where do the elements come from?

1. Atoms are made up of sub-atomic particles - protons, neutrons and electrons.

   • Protons and neutrons form the nucleus of atoms. Electrons move around the nucleus. Where protons are positively charged, electrons negative, and neutrons neutral.

2. Nuclear symbols consist of the atomic number and the mass number.

   • Atomic number = number of protons in the element
     • Mass number = the number of protons and neutrons in the element

3. Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different mass number, or different number of neutrons.

   • The relative atomic mass (Ar) is an average of the relative isotopic masses.

4. Mass spectrometry measures the molecular mass of different particles in a sample and the relative abundance of different isotopes in an element

5. To calculate the relative atomic mass you do:

   • (relative isotopic mass x relative abundance) / 100
     • This is done for each line on the graph so for example, the Ar of iron would be:
       • (54 x 5.8) + (56 x 91.7) + (57 x 2.2) + (58 x 0.3) / 100

6. Nuclear Fusion

   • Nuclear fusion consists of two light atomic nuclei fusing together to form a single heavier nucleus.
     • For this to occur they have to be very close together. This is only possible at very high temperatures, such as in a star.
       • Where the nuclei move much more quickly and collide with so much energy that the repulsion they naturally would have is overcome

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