My 9 y old would like to know what atoms are made of?

Question

Ok all of you Einsteins, we know all of that but he wants to know WHAT are they made out of

Answer 1

Atoms are made out of electromagnetic waves.
The size of an electron has never been measured.

"All attempts to measure the radius of the electron have failed!"

Its an excellent question. Most adults don't know, or just parrot something they heard.

Answer 2

Atoms are made up of 3 basic particles - Protons which carry a positive charge. Neutrons which carry no charge. Protons and Neutrons join together to form the necleus - the centre part of the Atom. For more info just type in what is an Atom in your address bar good luck albert (einstein)

Answer 3

What is an atom? What are atoms made of?

Atoms are the basic building blocks of ordinary matter. Atoms can join together to form molecules, which in turn form most of the objects around you.

Atoms are composed of particles called protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons carry a positive electrical charge, electrons carry a negative electrical charge and neutrons carry no electrical charge at all. The protons and neutrons cluster together in the central part of the atom, called the nucleus, and the electrons 'orbit' the nucleus. A particular atom will have the same number of protons and electrons and most atoms have at least as many neutrons as protons.

Protons and neutrons are both composed of other particles called quarks and gluons. Protons contain two 'up' quarks and one 'down' quark while neutrons contain one 'up' quark and two 'down' quarks. The gluons are responsible for binding the quarks to one another.

Answer 4

Atoms are made up of electrons orbiting a nucleus.The nucleus of an atom is made up roughly of half protons and half neutrons.In recent years it has been found that the atom is not the all ending smallest particle known to physics.In 1969 Caltech physicist Murry Gell-Mann won the nobel prize for discovering the existence of smaller particles that make up the proton and neutrons of atoms.These particles were named quarks.

Answer 5

Tell him they are building blocks like Lego. To make a car or a ship you need many pieces of Lego. Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons electrons and a nucleus. They all have different sizes and just like Lego will only fit together in specific ways. I know the analogy is not perfect, but at least it's a start.

Answer 6

I think a simple solar system analogy would be easiest for a 9 year old. Unless he/she is some child genius then why confuse the issue. No school teaches physics at that age surely. Just say the sun represents protons and neutrons and it has lots of little particles called electrons which, like planets, fly round it.

heavenlyhaggis

Answer 7

For the average 9-year-old, I think it's sufficient to say that atoms have a nucleus made of protons & neutrons & that electrons orbit the nucleus. Unless you're raising a child prodigy, neutrinos, quarks, etc. would probably be too much to comprehend.

Answer 8

Hi. I would explain that they are made of the smallest bit of material. An iron atom is made of iron. No one that I know can imagine how small they are, so explaining the size could be difficult. If she is curious you could explain about how atoms combine to make other stuff, like 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom make water.

Answer 9

Einstein cant be classed as witless
He claimed atoms were the littlest
when he did a bit of splitness
he frightened everybody S###tless

Answer 10

IF U R 9 Y it is mean u r in primary school , so that should be understand the atom contans nucleus with positive charge and electrons rotates around nucleus with negative charge