What Element Will Result if a Proton Is Added to the Nucleus of Carbon?

Transcript

Hi, I'm Robin Higgins and this is what element will result if you add a proton to the nucleus of carbon. Alright so let's look at the nucleus of carbon. Well, carbon equals atomic number six which means it's the sixth element on the periodic table and then it has six protons. So the nucleus will have one, two, three, four, five, six protons which are all positively charged. It will also have neutrons so let's just add six also one, two, three, four, five, six. Alright, so now let's do our transformation and we're going to add plus one proton. So we're going to have one, two, three, four, five, six, and now seven positively charged protons and the scenario we didn't change the neutrons so we'll still have one, two, three, four, five, six neutrons. Alright, so now we are at atomic number 7. So you have seven protons and if we look on the periodic table, we'll find drum roll, that it is nitrogen. So, if you add a proton to a carbon nucleus, you'll get nitrogen. Although it's worth noting this will never happen. This is not a chemical reaction that ever happens that a proton just flies into a stable carbon molecule and creates nitrogen. There are special types of decay that happen to have this under very very rare circumstances but in general, this is not a move that happens. The number of protons you have is the number of protons you are going to have. I'm Robin Higgins and this is what element will be created if you add a proton to the nucleus of carbon.

Robin Higgins graduated with a B.S in Chemistry from Emory University 2010, and has just recently received her M.S in Chemistry from the University of California Los Angeles.

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