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informal letter
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Below is one of our free research papers on informal letter. If the term paper below is not exactly what you're looking for, you can search our essay database for other topics.
AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE STRANGE
Here is an outrageous thought: All the matter around you is made of atoms, and all atoms are made of only three types of subatomic particle, protons, electrons, and neutrons. Furthermore, all protons are exactly the same, all neutrons are exactly the same, and all electrons are exactly the same. Protons and neutrons have almost exactly the same mass. Electrons have a mass that is about 1/1835 the mass of a proton. Electrons have a unit negative charge. Protons each have a positive charge. These charges are genuine electrical charges. Neutrons do not have any charge. Even more outrageous is the shape of the atoms with the three subatomic particles. The neutrons and protons are in the center of the atom in a nucleus. The electrons are outside the nucleus in electron shells that are in different shapes at different distances from the nucleus. The atom is mostly empty space. Ernest Rutherford shot subatomic particles at a very thin piece of gold. Most of the particles went straight through the gold. It was like shooting a rifle into a thin line of trees. Some of the particles bounced off, some stuck inside, but the major portion of them passed through the gold foil. By Rutherford’s calculations, the nucleus in an atom is like a B-B in a boxcar. That is a genuinely outrageous idea. Almost all the mass of an atom is concentrated in the tiny nucleus. The mass of a proton or neutron is 1.66 E -24 grams or one AMU, atomic mass unit. The mass of an e...
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