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Describe The Number Of Protons And Nuetrons

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The copper atom is constructed from three kinds of particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons are located in a very small spherical volume at the exact center of the atom called the nucleus. Protons have a +1 charge, and nuetrons have no charge, so the nucleus has an overall positive charge. The electrons, which have a -1 charge, are located in a relatively large spherical volume around and centered on the nucleus.

The nucleus of all copper atoms contains exactly 29 protons. However, atoms with two different numbers of neutrons, called isotopes, are to be constructed. One isotope contains 34 neutrons (copper-63) and the other isotope contains 36 neutrons (copper-65). For every 100 atoms made, there are 69 copper-63 atoms and 31 copper-65 atoms. …show more content…

These electrons, as is the case with the electrons of all atoms, are arranged in a series of shells and subshells. Copper atoms may be described by the symbolic notation, 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d9, where each leading number denotes the shell, the lower-case letter denotes the subshell, and the superscript specifies the number of electrons in the subshell. Within the s-, p-, and d-subshells, there are 1, 3, and 5 orbitals respectively. Each orbital may contain a maximum of 2 electrons. Thus, all orbitals in all the subshells occupied by electrons in the copper atom are full except for one orbital in the d-subshell in the third shell that has just one electron in it. Note that the highest shell containing electrons in the copper atom is the fourth

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