YOU DISCOVERED A NEW ATOM! WOW, EVERYONE AT YOUR LAB IS IMPRESSED!! SOME ARE SAYING YOU MAY BE NOMINATED FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE!!! IF THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN, YOU HAVE TO FIND OUT AS MUCH ABOUT THE ATOM AS YOU CAN, AND YOU DON’T HAVE LONG TO DO IT. THE LAB WAS CLOSING FOR THE NIGHT AND YOU ONLY HAD TIME TO FIND OUT THE FOLLOWING ABOUT THE ATOM: THE MASS IS 252 AMU, IT HAS 130 PROTONS AND IT IS ABLE TO GIVE UP 2 ELECTRONS IF NEED BE. BECAUSE YOU ARE A GENIUS IN CHEMISTRY, YOU WENT HOME AND FIGURED OUT THE REST OF ITS ANATOMY.
QUESTION!
You documented this atom to have 130 electrons. How did you figure that out?
The number of electrons eq
..equals the number of protons in any atom. Ignore the other superfluous information
All atoms are zero charged in the elemental state. It has 130 protons; therefore, it MUST have 130 electrons and it didn't take me until I got home that night to figure that one out. In fact, I knew it instantly. (The number electrons always equals the number of protons for an element.) By the way, typing in caps makes your post hard to read.
To determine the number of electrons in an atom, we usually rely on its atomic number, which is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. In this case, you mentioned that the atom has 130 protons.
The number of protons and electrons in a neutral atom is always the same. This is because atoms are electrically neutral, so the positive charge of the protons in the nucleus is balanced out by the negative charge of the electrons surrounding the nucleus.
Therefore, if the atom has 130 protons, it also has 130 electrons.