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How are the atoms of different elements similar?

User Nubok
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2 Answers

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18 votes

The number of neutrons in atoms of different elements can be the same

User Christopher P
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Answer:

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Step-by-step explanation:

Each element is unique (forget isotopes for a while), and so, you would expect them to each have unique properties, and you would be right. They each have their properties that belongs to them alone.

But chemists soon found out that some of them even though unique actually share some similarities, like some of them reacting the same way with another given element in very specific proportions, or that some of them had tendencies that other elements didn´t have.

This realization led to creating a table where every atom in a same column had these similar properties, and, by organizing them in order of atomic weight, they found out many other properties that certain regions had. They also noticed that this arrangement led to properties changing quite consistently when you traveled from a point to the other of the table.

This was such a huge huge discovery that, even before we had the heavy duty machinery to identify atoms, and some of them were still to be found, chemists could pinpoint that we still had some to find because, when organizing them, we realized that there were holes, that would be later be filled by an yet undiscovered element.

Also, this table is so powerful that we are 100% sure that we won´t find any more elements before the smallest nor in between the ones already discovered, at most, we can find bigger elements in some crazy star that has super duper harsh conditions that may stabilize bigger ones. I think there are some questions in Quora where physicists (wizard people) discuss this possibility

User Nsantana
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