how many atoms make up the structure of a single element?

Answer 1

The number of atoms that make up one molecule of an element depends on its atomicity.
If the atomicity of an element is 2, the element would have 2 atoms in bonded form in one molecule.
for example,
Atomicity of Phosphorus is 4, so we write P4 (with 4 in subscript),
Atomicity of Sulfur is 8, (it is fount in a chained form having 8 atoms)

Answer 2

Only one atom is the element itself.

Anything like the person describes above such as H2O (water) is already a compound molecule of 2 elements, 2 atoms of hydrogen which are negatively charged, attached to 1 atom of oxygen which is positively charged, and is not a single element nor a single atom any longer.

Each element has it's own atomic structure, and therefore can be identified by just one of it's atoms, just like one fingerprint can identify one person out of all the billions of persons on this planet, one atom does identify one element.

Simple, isn't it?

Answer 3

It is dependent on what type of element you have. The most simple would be metals: there is a metallic bond between the atoms for the whole metal, so it would be an infinite number of atoms in a metallic element, all bond together, without forming a molecule.
If it is a noble gas( He, Ar, Kr, Xe) then we talk about a single-atom molecule, the structure of the gas would be consisting of single atoms ( that are considered to be molecules ).
If you have other elements that are in gas state normally then the molecule consists of two atoms bond with covalent bond (sharing electron-pairs) ex: H2,N2, O2, F2, Cl2 etc.
the nonmetallic elements that are in liquid or solid state have a more complicated structure, many times have different ways to stick together, and you can see it in their (ex at S there are quite six-seven or more ways, some of them with eight atoms in a molecule, some more, some less, but it looks differently each time. or a very everyday example would be carbon: if it has 4 atoms/molecule we call it diamond, if many layers similar to metals then its graphite)

Answer 4

It depends which. For example, some elements, gases like oxygen have 2 atoms in it's structure O2, like the formula says. But those are molecules of elements. I'm not sure I understood your question.

Answer 5

Just one is enough !!