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Do you have any idea for a Atom structure of phosphorus?
For my science prodject i have to build the attom of phosphrous. WHen building this aton i can either have it hang out stand up. THe attom has 16 Protons and 15 Neurons. And 3 shells. i need to think of a creative way to design the attom. Candy has already been taken by using redvines and attaching marshmellows to commect it for the shells. I need a new idea. I was thinging of using Gum, but does anybody have any ideas? thanks
3 Answers
- pisgahchemistLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
I absolutely hate these kinds of projects. What it demonstrates is that the teacher has no concept of the relative dimensions of atoms. To drive home the absurdity of such a project, I had my chemistry students build a scale model of a sodium atom using marshmallows. They used large marshmallows for the nucleus. They had 11 protons and 12 neutrons since there is only one stable isotope of sodium, Na-23. The marshmallows were held together by toothpicks.
Now, here is where it gets interesting. They measured the diameter of their nucleus in centimeters and then figured out where the outermost electron would have to be in order to make a scale model.
The approximate radius of the nucleus is 0.0012 x A^(1/3), where A is the mass number. This means that a sodium nucleus has an approximate radius of 0.00341 picometers. Compare that to the radius of the sodium atom: 150 pm.
That means that the atom is about 4.4x10^4 times larger than the nucleus. The marshmallow nucleus was 18 cm across. The radius is 9 cm. Using the ratio of the atomic radius to the nuclear radius, the radius of the scale atom is 4000 meters or about 2.5 miles.
We then put up a Google map of the city with our school in the middle of the picture and used a meterstick and the distance scale on the map to measure a distance of of 2.5 miles from the school. At a distance of 2.5 miles from the school was the Ingle's grocery store. So we figured that if we put a small marshmallow on the bread aisle of the grocery store it would simulate an atom of sodium.
Now. See how ridiculous making a model of the atom is? It certainly won't be a scale model. Point out to your teacher that there are many more important chemistry projects that you could be doing.
- 1 decade ago
how about something common that contains phosphorus. i know matches are made of a phosphorus compound. it may be difficult but you could make a phosphorus atom out of matches.
- Anonymous5 years ago
from my recollection of organic chemistry you have enough to get a B at least.