For now we can think of atoms as having "inner" and "outer" shells. Electrons have a certain way of arranging themselves on atoms, and we can think of electrons as existing in "shells" around the atom's nucleus. The reason for this has to do with the number of electrons oxygen has. Your question is an interesting one, because it is often the starting point for many other questions we can ask about elements, chemicals, and materials.įor instance, though we often refer to the gas we breathe as just "oxygen", it is actually the molecule O 2 (two oxygen atoms bonded together). I'll start by answering the question directly: in general, elemental oxygen has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. For oxygen, the isotope with 8 protons and 8 neutrons makes up 99.7% of all oxygen atoms, so its a safe bet to say that oxygen almost always has 8 protons and 8 neutrons. Scientists have found the relative abundance of each element and isotope, so we can Most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, so the atomic mass is very close to 12 AMU. ![]() This tells us that most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and some carbon atoms have 6 protons and maybe 7 or 8 neutrons. For example, the atomic mass of carbon (the 6th element on the periodic table) is 12.01 AMU. Because the atomic mass of each element is averaged over every stable isotope of that element, sometimes we see decimal numbers for the atomic mass. The chemical properties of the element don't change, but the atomic mass of the element is different if it has, say, 8 neutrons versus 9 neutrons. An isotope is an element that has a different number of neutrons in different atoms. This calculation can get surprisingly tricky! The atomic mass of an element is an average over all of the isotopes of each element. 16 total protons and neutrons minus 8 protons leaves us with 8 neutrons. So, if the atomic mass of oxygen is 16, that means we have a total of 16 protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons each count for one AMU, and the electron counts for zero AMU. In terms of mass, protons and neutrons have about the same mass, and electrons have very little mass in comparison. For oxygen, the atomic mass is 16 AMU (Atomic Mass Units). The periodic table has another number associated with every element, and that is it's atomic mass. Since it is neutral, it also has eight protons! This means that it has eight electrons in its neutral state. Oxygen is the eighth element in the periodic table, with the symbol O. The neutral state of an atom is when it's net charge is zero that is, the number of protons equals the numbers of electrons. Let's look to the periodic table for our answer! The periodic table tells us information about every element in existence in its neutral state. How many protons, neutrons, and electrons are in oxygen?
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