What is the difference between particles and atoms

You probably think of atoms, molecules, and particles as all being extremely small pieces of matter. This is not exactly accurate; while atoms are matter—the smallest pieces of matter you can find—molecules are the smallest bits of compounds. For example, copper is an element. Others form most of the matter around us today. Particle physics studies these very small building block particles and works out how they interact to make the universe look and behave the way it does.

Think about the width of a human hair, one of the smallest things we can see — twenty of them placed side by side fit across one millimetre. If we use a microscope to look inside a hair we see cells, which are formed from molecules. Each molecule is made up of a collection of atoms. We know that everything is formed from various types of atoms and that atoms are really small — you can fit a hundred thousand of them across a human hair.

We see that atoms consist of a nucleus, ten thousand times smaller than the atom, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What is the difference between atoms, particles and matter? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 1 month ago. Active 1 year, 1 month ago. Viewed 2k times.

Improve this question. JamesM JamesM 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. That means; a certain chemical element has a certain number of protons in their atoms. Furthermore, atoms take part in chemical bonding via gaining, removing or sharing their electrons in the outermost orbitals. The formation of chemical bonds results in the formation of chemical compounds or molecules. Most of the physical changes in nature occur due to the ability of these atoms to associate and dissociate.

A particle is a minute portion of matter. It is a small localized object which has properties such as mass, volume and density. The size of particles may vary from subatomic particles such as electrons to microscopic particles such as molecules and even to macroscopic particles, i.

Generally, we use the term particle for three major sizes; macroscopic, microscopic and subatomic particles. Macroscopic particles are larger than atoms and molecules and are visible to the naked eye. Examples include powder and dust particles.