nLab chemical element

Contents

Context

Physics

physics, mathematical physics, philosophy of physics

Surveys, textbooks and lecture notes


theory (physics), model (physics)

experiment, measurement, computable physics

Contents

Idea

In chemistry a type of atom is called a chemical element. The bound states of these are the molecules.

The atomic number of a chemical element is the number of protons in any atomic nuclei of this element.

The corresponding number of neutrons on the nucleus tends to be close to the number of protons, hence to the atomic number of the element, but need not equal it and my differ considerably for heavy elements. These variants of neutron number for give atomic number specify the isotopes of the chemical element.

The periodic table of the elements organizes the elements according to their atomic number. This behaviour is explained by the quantum physics of atoms. This transition area between quantum physics and chemistry is called quantum chemistry.

Examples

References

See also

Speculative analogy to classification of complex surfaces (different from but inspired by Skyrmion models for atomic nuclei):

Last revised on April 3, 2023 at 11:20:29. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.