• Question: What are electrons and protons?

    Asked by Emma04 to Dervil, Moises, Pramod, Saoirse, Stephen on 7 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Dervil Cody

      Dervil Cody answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      So as you probably know, atoms are the tiny building blocks that make up everything around us. For a long time, scientists thought that atoms were the smallest things that could exist. But then thanks to some very clever experiments, scientists including Thompson and Rutherford discovered that if you split the atom, there were even smaller particles inside, which have been called protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are larger, and sit in the center of the atom called the nucleus, whereas electrons are smaller and orbit around the nucleus, like how planets orbit the Sun! Protons have a positive charge, electrons have a negative charge, and neutrons are neutral. Hopefully this picture shows the inside of an atom clearly:

    • Photo: Moises Jezzini

      Moises Jezzini answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      Thank you Dervil for this answer.

      I would like to add that protons and electrons are attracted to each other by what we call electric forces. This electric forces are the base of most of our modern technology! We use the electric forces between protons and electrons to send electricity to our houses and power our devices.

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