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ASVAB Physical Science 1.4 184 Views


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Description:

ASVAB Physical Science Drill 1, Problem 4. An atom has three protons, three electrons, and four neutrons. What is the charge of the atom?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:02

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by atoms.

00:05

They make up... everything.

00:07

So this is brought to you by, well, everything.

00:10

Whoa.

00:11

An atom has three protons, three electrons, and four neutrons.

00:15

Three, three, four. What is the charge on the atom?

00:18

And here are the potential answers.

00:19

[ mumbles ]

00:21

Well, figuring out the answer here comes down to basic addition

00:23

and subtraction. We just need a quick review.

00:26

We've got protons, which carry positive charges.

00:29

There are electrons, which carry negative charges.

00:32

And there are neutrons, which are particles without a charge.

00:36

In our question here, we've got three protons, three electrons, and four neutrons.

00:40

Now, it doesn't matter how many neutrons there are in the atom

00:42

because neutrons have no charge.

00:44

They're the unambitious slackers of the subatomic world.

00:47

All we have to do is think of a proton as one

00:50

and an electron as a negative one.

00:52

So if we take positive three and add it

00:55

to negative three, well, we get zero, making option B the correct choice.

00:58

And it's important to remember that neutrons don't affect the charge of an atom.

01:02

Only the protons and electrons do.

01:05

If there are more protons than electrons, well, the atom will have a positive charge.

01:09

If there are more electrons than protons, it'll have a negative charge. Duh.

01:12

And if there's the same number of each, then we've got

01:15

a neutral atom with no charge, like the one in our question and Switzerland.

01:19

And if we need to count using our fingers,

01:21

we'll go ahead and do it. It's nice; it makes us feel young again.

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