Question: hello liza. tell me about atoms and how they work

Liza Selley answered on 18 Jun 2018:

Hi woowoo101

I’m going to be honest..atoms sent my head spinning at school! I found Chemistry really hard back then.

What I do remember is that all molecules and compounds are made of atoms and those atoms can be made from any element in the periodic table. That means that everything is made of atoms- they’re like the lego blocks of the universe.

Except for Helium which stays as a single atom, the atoms have to join together like a jigsaw to make molecules and compounds. A molecule is formed when two or more of the same type of atom join together e.g. two oxygen atoms and a compound is produced by two or more different types of atom join together e.g. water which is two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen. We call the joins between atoms ‘bonds’.

Is this what you wanted to know about atoms? I’m kinda enjoying learning about them again so feel free to ask more questions!

Liza