Wonders of the Universe - Brian Cox [46]
THE SIX LIGHTEST ELEMENTS IN NATURE: HYDROGEN TO CARBON In each element the number of protons (p) in its nucleus is the same as the number of orbiting electrons, but the number of neutrons (n), which have no electric charge, can vary.
We have already encountered the first four elements; one of these, hydrogen, has an atomic nucleus consisting of a single proton. The proton has a positive electric charge, which allows it to trap an electron in orbit around it to form a hydrogen atom. The electron carries a negative electric charge, equal and opposite to that of the proton. This means that hydrogen atoms are electrically neutral. The reason why the electron has exactly the equal and opposite charge of the proton is not known. This is even more surprising when you look at the quarks that build up the proton. The proton is made up of three quarks – two up quarks and one down quark. The up quark has an electric charge of +2/3, and the down quark has a charge of -1/3. The electron has a charge of -1. So it is only when they are combined to form a proton that everything balances out properly. The neutron consists of two down quarks and an up, which means that it has no electric charge at all. This cannot be a coincidence, and it is one of the great challenges for twenty-first-century physics to explain it.
Chemical elements differ because of varying numbers of protons in their atomic nucleus, but the number of neutrons makes no difference to their chemical properties. Chemistry is down to the way the electrons behave that orbit around the nucleus, and the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons. As we know, the hydrogen atom consists of one proton and one electron, but there is another form of hydrogen called deuterium. Deuterium has a neutron attached to the proton inside its nucleus, but this doesn’t change its chemical properties as there is still only one electron. Technically speaking, deuterium and hydrogen are two different isotopes of the same element. Helium atoms always have two protons and two electrons; it also has forms with one and two neutrons, known as helium-3 and helium-4 respectively. Next comes lithium, with three protons, three electrons and either three or four neutrons, sometimes more. Carbon has six protons and varying numbers of neutrons, and so on. The rule is that each successive element has one more proton in its nucleus, and at least one more neutron, although the number of neutrons varies. The neutrons help the nucleus to stick together; which is bound tightly by the strong nuclear force, and neutrons add to this, even though they have no electric charge. Electric charge is a bad thing for the nucleus; because the protons are positively charged, they repel each other and try to blow the nucleus apart. The neutrons don’t suffer from this problem, which is one of the reasons why heavier nuclei tend to have more neutrons than protons.
So the construction of chemical elements is simple. If you want to turn iron into copper, add three protons and a handful of neutrons to its nucleus. That’s all there is to it. This is easier said than done, of course, yet nature can do it because when the Universe was only a few minutes old the first four chemical elements existed. The building blocks were present, but the heavier elements were assembled later
THE MOST POWERFUL EXPLOSION ON EARTH
The now iconic image of a hydrogen bomb explosion. This mushroom cloud was produced by the detonation of XX-33 Romeo on 26 March 1954;