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A Model of the Atom



This image is a model of an atom
Click on image for full size (58K GIF)
Image courtesy of Contemporary Physics Education Project

This is a model of an atom. The green part is the atom's center, its nucleus. The nucleus is made up of particles called protons (with positive electric charge) and neutrons (electrically neutral). Today, scientists think that protons and neutrons are made of even smaller particles called quarks (shown in red).

The white particles are electrons which have a negative electric charge. They orbit the nucleus at a considerable distance (much greater than shown in this image).


What's a molecule?

A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF


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Last modified April 18, 2003 by the Windows Team

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