what is the difference between an atom and an element?

Question

Hi... im doing a science report. i can use the internet to find my answers, so im gonna use this while search for other answers to other questions. so yeah, can anyone tell me what the difference is between an atom and an element?

Answer 1

An element is a substance composed of the same atoms.

And atom is the basic unit of an element.
Atoms can be combined to create new compounds like H20 (water). This new substance is a combination of the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen at the ratio of two Hydrogen atoms to one Oxygen atom.

As per the periodic table of elements the number of protons in an atom determine what element it is. The higher the number of protons the higher the element's place on the periodic table.

The number of electrons in an atom depends if it is an ion (negatively charged atom) or a normal atom. Ions artificially hold extra electrons, which they can't sustain, but they can use them to form different chemical bonds.

For example Oxygen never exists in a single element state, it always tries to bond with another oxygen atom. The O2 is stable because both atoms need an extra pair of electrons to fill their outer orbital electron shell. However, if you put a lot of electricity in the air or if you are high in the atmosphere where a lot of solar radiation hits the oxygen you can get ozone 03. An unstable molecule.

Answer 2

An atom is the smallest form of an element; a particle of the element. An element is something that's made up of any number of atoms of the exact same kind. An atom is the tiniest bit that can still be classified as an element, and is made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Answer 3

An atom is an individual unit made up of subatomic particles (neutrons, protons and electrons) arranged into a nucleus and an electron shell. An element is a type, a category, of atom, defined by having a certain number of protons.

This is sort of like asking what the difference is between a car and a brand of car.

Answer 4

a chemical element is a substance that consists of only a single type of atoms. hydrogen is an element 'cause hydrogen contains only hydrogen atoms. actually Hydrogen atoms contains 1 proton, and 1 electron and 0 neutron of course Hydrogen has other isotopes (atoms of same element having different neutron number). Two well known isotopes of Hydrogen are Hydrogen-2 (Deuterium), 1 proton, 1 electron and 1 neutron Hydrogen-3 (Tritium), 1 proton, 1 electron and 2 neutron

Answer 5

An element is a group of the same type of atoms. An atom is the smallest amount you can have of an element...just one. Any thing smaller would be the parts of an atom...subatomic particles.

Answer 6

It has every thing to do with it for you see an atom is the smallest thing ever and an element is made of atoms (even in the tip of your pencil which mostly is graphite their are 100000000000 of atoms in it the atomic number is how many protons and electrons their are and the atomic number is protons plus nuetrons so you just round and subtract).

Answer 7

An atom is any individual atom, made of a characteristic number of protons (meaning the number of protons determines what element the atom is) neutrons and electrons, with and equal number of protons and electrons on uncharged atoms. An element is a chemical consisting of atoms all with the same number of protons. for example, a chunk of iron is made of a huge number of atoms, yet is only one element.

Answer 8

A chemical element, or element, is a type of atom that is defined by its atomic number; that is, by the number of protons in its nucleus.

Answer 9

atom: smallest particle still characterizing a chemical element.
element: a pure chemical substance composed of atoms with the same number of protons

Answer 10

an atom makes up everything.

an element is made up of one atom.