Glynn Edward Robinson.. age 11, of Montgomery,Alabama, for his question:
What is oxygen made of? _
This question brings us right to the core of the science of chemistry. For oxygen is one of the basic chemical elements. Every speck of matter in the entire universe is made of chemical elements but we never see many of them in their pure farm. Oxygen is the most plentiful element around us, but in our everyday world pure oxygen is invisible. .
A chemical element is made from atoms all of one kind. An atom is too small for our eyes to sea and countless trillions of oxygen atoms dance around in every thimbleful of invisible air. Oxygen is the most important and the most plentiful element on the surface of our teeming planet. And it is made from oxygen atoms, every one of them too small for our ayes to sea.
An atom is an orderly arrangement of even smaller particles. It has been compared to a solar system with a central sun and a number of orbiting planets. The nucleus of the atom can be compared with the sun. It i~a wad of particles bound together with terrific energy. This nucleus carries a definite charge of positive electricity. Its planets are tiny electrons. They are charged with negative electricity and there are enough of them to balance the positive electricity in the nucleus. A normal atom is electrically neutral.
There are many different particles in an atom and more are being discovered. The most important particles in the nucleus are protons and neutrons. Each proton carries a definite charge of positive electricity and each neutron is electrically neutral. The negative charge of an electron is equal and opposite to the positive charge of a proton.
The oxygen atom has eight protons in its nucleus plus eight or more protons. You have guessed by now that sight negative electrons swarm around its nucleus. These are the basic facts about the oxygen atom and all the oxygen in the universe is made from oxygen atoms.
Eight is the number for the oxygen atom and so long as it keeps eight protons in its nucleus it will be oxygen. But if it could lose a proton from its nucleus it would become an atom of nitrogen which is chemical element number seven. If its nucleus could gain a proton it would becoi;e an atom of the number nine element, which is fluorine. Oxygen behaves the way it does because of the way it is made. It is one of the busiest elements always eager to combine with other elements to form molecules. And molecules form compounds which are different from the pure elements.
Oxygen combines with silicon and other elements to form about fifty percent of the solid rocks of the earths crust. It combines with hydrogen to form liquid water. At ordinary temperatures, pure oxygen is a tasteless, odorless, invisible gas. About one fifth of the air is made up from free atoms of gaseous oxygen host of these free atoms ors linked in pairs to form molecules of pure oxygen.