EOSC 118 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Precious Metal, Partial Charge, Native Metal
Document Summary
Lesson 6 - elements, matter, and precious metals. We all know that all matter is composed of particles known as atoms they"re made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Matter composed of identical atoms are called elements: protons: the number of protons that an element contains = atomic number of said element. Each proton has a positive charge: neutrons: usually there are an equal number of protons and neutrons however larger atoms generally have a greater number of neutrons than protons. Neutrons have no electric charge: electrons: they are much smaller and carry a single negative electric charge, atomic mass: the total number of neutrons and protons = atomic mass (measured in amu atomic mass units). Electrons are too tiny to be significant but protons and neutrons have an atomic mass equal to one (roughly). When the atomic mass of an element is not rough (gold =
