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What is an ion

What is an ion

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What is an ion?

An ion is a charged atom or molecule. It is charged because the number of electrons do

not equal the number of protons in the atom or molecule. An atom can acquire a

positive charge or a negative charge depending on whether the number of electrons in

an atom is greater or less then the number of protons in the atom.

When an atom is attracted to another atom because it has an unequal number of

electrons and protons, the atom is called an ION. If the atom has more electrons than

protons, it is a negative ion, or ANION. If it has more protons than electrons, it is a

positive ion, or CATION.

What is an atom?

An atom is a fundamental piece of matter. (Matter is anything that can be touched

physically.) Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so,

everything in the universe is made of atoms.

An atom itself is made up of three tiny kinds of particles called subatomic particles:

protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and the neutrons make up the center of

the atom called the nucleus and the electrons fly around above the nucleus in a small

cloud. The electrons carry a negative charge and the protons carry a positive charge. In

a normal (neutral) atom the number of protons and the number of electrons are equal.

Often, but not always, the number of neutrons is the same, too.

Force.

The specific meaning of the noun force also involves getting an object to move.

The English physicist Isaac Newton figured out that the amount of force needed to

move an object was directly related to both the mass and the object and how it is

accelerated [moved].

What is now known as Newton's second law of motion sets down this relationship

quantitatively: Force equals mass times acceleration, or F = ma.

The standard unit of force is the newton.

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Van der Waals forces.

Van der Waals forces, is a general term used to define the attraction of intermolecular

forces between molecules.

There are two kinds of Van der Waals forces: weak London Dispersion forces and

stronger dipole-dipole forces.

The chance that an electron of an atom is in a certain area in the electron cloud at a

specific time is called the "electron charge density." Since there is no way of knowing

exactly where the electron is located and since they do not all stay in the same area

100 percent of the time, if the electrons all go to the same area at once, a dipole is

formed momentarily.

Even if a molecule is nonpolar, this displacement of electrons causes a nonpolar

molecule to become polar for a moment.

Since the molecule is polar, this means that all the electrons are concentrated at one

end and the molecule is partially negatively charged on that end. This negative end

makes the surrounding molecules have an instantaneous dipole also, attracting the

surrounding molecules' positive ends. This process is known as the London

Dispersion Force of attraction.

The forces are named for the Dutch physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who in

1873 first postulated these intermolecular forces in developing a theory to account for

the properties of real gases. Solids that are held together by van der Waals forces

characteristically have lower melting points and are softer than those held together by

the stronger ionic, covalent, and.

The ability of a molecule to become polar and displace its electrons is known as the

molecule's "plarizability." The more electrons a molecule contains, the higher its

ability to become polar. Polarizability increases in the periodic table from the top of a

group to the bottom and from right to left within periods. This is because the higher

the molecular mass, the more electrons an atom has. With more electrons, the outer

electrons are easily displaced because the inner electrons shield the nucleus' positive

charge from the outer electrons which would normally keep them close to the nucleus.

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What is an ion? An ion is a charged atom or molecule. It is charged because the number of electrons do not equal the number of protons in the atom or molecule. An atom can acquire a positive charge or a negative charge depending on whether the number of electrons in an atom is greater or less then the number of protons in the atom. When an atom is attracted to another atom because it has an unequal number of electrons and protons, the atom is called an ION. If the atom has more electrons than protons, it is a negative ion, or ANION. If it has more protons than electrons, it is a positive ion, or CATION. What is an atom? An atom is a fundamental piece of matter. (Matter is anything that can be touched physically.) Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so, everything in the universe is made of atoms. An atom itself is made up of three tiny kinds of particles called subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and the neutrons make up the center of the atom called the nucleus and the electrons fly around above the nucleus in a small cloud. The electrons carry a negative charge and the protons carry a positive charge. In a normal (neu ...
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