The Atom: Building Block of Matter
Everything around us, from the air we breathe to the water we drink, is made up of tiny particles called ATOMS. These atoms are so incredibly small that if you were to compare them to a single human hair, it would take about 1 million atoms lined up side by side to match the width of that hair! Atoms consist of two main parts. The first part is the NUCLEUS, which is located at the center of the atom. The nucleus contains protons, which have a positive charge, and neutrons, which do not have any charge at all. The second part is the ELECTRON CLOUD, which surrounds the nucleus. This is where electrons, which carry a negative charge, move around in specific areas called energy levels or shells. In a neutral atom, the number of protons is equal to the number of electrons, which means that the positive and negative charges balance each other out, making the atom stable and neutral.