Is it possible to add protons to an atom

This explanation is provided by the team of Stephen Reucroft and John D. Swain, professors at the Department of Physics of Northeastern University.

First it's probably a good idea to review of what an atom is made of. Basically, it contains a nucleus, holding some number call it N of positively charged protons, which is surrounded by a cloud N of negatively charged electrons. The force that holds the electrons and protons together is the electromagnetic force. The number N tells you what element you have: for hydrogen N equals 1, for helium, 2, and so on.

The same electromagnetic force that draws opposite charged electrons and protons together tries to push the protons which all have the same charge away from each other.

To avoid this separation, another particle comes into play in the nucleus: the neutron. Much like a proton in mass but without electric charge, the neutron is essential for holding the nucleus together. At short distances i. For most elements, there are several possibilities as to how many neutrons can fit into the nucleus, and each choice corresponds to a different isotope of that element. Suppose you want to pull an atom apart. The first thing you need to do is get rid of the electrons.

There are lots of ways to do this. You can shine light on the atom, or expose it to another form of electromagnetic radiation having an even shorter wavelength. Also, you can hit it with particles such as electrons or other atoms. In principle, we can therefore create gold by simply assembling 79 protons and enough neutrons to make the nucleus stable. Or even better, we can remove one proton from mercury which has 80 or add one proton to platinum which has 78 in order to make gold.

The process is simple in principle but hard to do in practice. Adding or removing protons from a nucleus are types of nuclear reactions. As such, no series of chemical reactions can ever create gold. Chemical reactions change the number and shape of the electrons in an atom but leave the nucleus of the atom unchanged. The ancient alchemist dream of creating gold by simply reacting chemicals is therefore impossible.

You have to use nuclear reactions to create gold. The difficulty is that nuclear reactions require a lot of energy. The nucleus of a stable atom is very tightly bound together, so it is hard to get anything permanently into or out of the nucleus. To induce a nuclear reaction, we have to shoot high-energy particles at a nucleus. This force between the protons and neutrons overcomes the repulsive electrical force that would otherwise push the protons apart, according to the rules of electricity.

Some atomic nuclei are unstable because the binding force varies for different atoms based on the size of the nucleus. These atoms will then decay into other elements, such as carbon decaying into nitrogen Protons are positively charged particles found within atomic nuclei. Rutherford discovered them in experiments with cathode-ray tubes that were conducted between and Protons are about The number of protons in an atom is unique to each element.

For example, carbon atoms have six protons, hydrogen atoms have one and oxygen atoms have eight. The number of protons in an atom is referred to as the atomic number of that element. The number of protons also determines the chemical behavior of the element. Elements are arranged in the Periodic Table of the Elements in order of increasing atomic number.

Three quarks make up each proton — two "up" quarks each with a two-thirds positive charge and one "down" quark with a one-third negative charge — and they are held together by other subatomic particles called gluons, which are massless.

Electrons are tiny compared to protons and neutrons, over 1, times smaller than either a proton or a neutron. Electrons are about 0.

Joseph John J. Thomson, a British physicist, discovered the electron in , according to the Science History Institute. Originally known as "corpuscles," electrons have a negative charge and are electrically attracted to the positively charged protons. Today, this model is known as the quantum model or the electron cloud model. The inner orbitals surrounding the atom are spherical but the outer orbitals are much more complicated.

An atom's electron configuration refers to the locations of the electrons in a typical atom. Using the electron configuration and principles of physics, chemists can predict an atom's properties, such as stability, boiling point and conductivity, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The neutron's existence was theorized by Rutherford in and discovered by Chadwick in , according to the American Physical Society. Neutrons were found during experiments when atoms were shot at a thin sheet of beryllium. Subatomic particles with no charge were released — the neutron. Neutrons are uncharged particles found within all atomic nuclei except for hydrogen.