The Atom

[GFirmer]

The atom is the fundamental unit explored in the field of chemistry, but is too small for humans to see. Thus, they must imagine or visualise atoms. The way chemists visualise the atom depends on the purpose they need to imagine it for, such as searching for the exact location of an electron, which might necessitate use of the quantum model, or whether they are trying to explain chemical bonding to a high school student, for which they would use the Bohr Model (Justi & Gilbert, 2000). In this sonaphor, the aim is to explore constituent parts of the atom that are known and present in all models - that is, the protons, neutrons, electrons and their relative charges.

Listen to the Atom sonaphor here