Understand How to Represent Atoms in Diagrams

What is everything in the universe made up of?

Atoms! 

Atoms are the simplest and smallest things that exist. Different things are made of different types of atoms. A piece of gold for example is made up of lots of gold atoms. Oxygen is made up of oxygen atoms. 

We can't see individual atoms with the human eye as they are just so small. Only the most powerful microscopes can see them. There are about 2,000 billion billion oxygen atoms in just one drop of water!

Because we can't easily see atoms (without the use of a very powerful microscope!) we can picture atoms as small balls, and when we draw them we often just draw small circles. Each small circle would represent a single atom. 

All atoms of the same type would be drawn as the same size and colour circle. Atoms from different elements would be drawn as different colours, and maybe even different sizes. So you can easily determine if a picture of a molecule shows just one type of atom or many. 

Ready to try some questions on atoms? Great, let's go!