eli5: from what i understand elements are determined based on the vibration of the atoms im sure this is wrong, but can i get a good explanation of what determines an atoms element?

Question

i could be entierly wrong but from what i remember being told the elements of atoms all have their own frequency or vibration. is this true? and furthermore would changing the vibration or frequency change the element of the atom.

im not asking if this is physicality possible now.. but is this how the system works, or do i have a fundamental misunderstanding?

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Answer 1

Frequency and vibration are a whole separate thing – atoms do vibrate and interact, but let’s ignore that for now.

Every element is made up of a nucleus, made up of positively-charged *protons* and neutrally-charged *neutrons*, and the nucleus is surrounded by negatively charged *electrons,* which we can think of as orbiting the nucleus. What’s actually happening is more complex, but it’s good enough to picture it like [this image.](https://cdn1.byjus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/What-Does-An-Atom-Look-Like-3.png)

An atom’s element is determined by how many protons it has. That’s it. If an element has 8 protons, it’s Oxygen. If it has 28 protons, it’s Nickel, and so on. The number of neutrons can vary, which can sometimes result in radioactivity. And the number of electrons *usually* matches the number of protons, so that the positive and negative charges balance out. But electrons are responsible for chemical reactions – they interact with other elements, sharing, giving, or taking electrons in different ways, to combine elements into compounds. But at the core, each element still has its nucleus full of protons, and that can’t change unless we split the atom or fuse it, which take a lot of effort to do.