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Atomic Shapes
Name: Mark
Status: student
Grade: 4-5
Location: CA
Country: N/A
Date: November 2006
Question:
Can atoms come in different shapes?
Replies:
The shape an atom takes up is actually very important in chemistry. An atom
is made up of a small core, called a nucleus (with protons and neutrons),
and electrons, which are found outside of the nucleus. Scientists have come
up with models to describe where the electrons can be found (you cannot know
exactly where the electrons will be, so you can only say where they are most
likely to be, this is known as the uncertainty principle), and these are
called orbitals. As an atom gets more and more electrons, they have to fit
into different orbitals. The shapes of these orbitals varies, here is a good
link that talks about the shapes of atomic orbitals:
http://library.thinkquest.org/3659/structures/shapes.html
When you add up all the orbitals the general shape of the atom is still
round, but the fact that different electrons live in different shaped
orbitals is actually very important when thinking about how atoms can be put
together by bonds.
Hope that helps,
Ethan Greenblatt
Stanford Department of Chemistry
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Update: June 2012
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