Medical Chemistry

We have already learned that basic chemistry involves the study of matter, mass and weight, and that matter is made up of elements, and elements are made up of atoms, which are indivisible, until you look deeper and find that they too are made up of neutrons, protons and electrons!

Now what?

Lets look at atomic numbers and mass numbers. The atomic number of an element is “equal to the number of protons in each atom, and because the number of electrons and protons is equal, the atomic number is also the number of electrons in an atom” (Seeley, Stevens & Tate 2006, p. 27). The mass number of an element, however, is the number of protons plus the number of neutrons in an atom. For example, the mass number fo oxygen is 16 because it has 8 protons and 8 neutrons.

What happens when things aren’t working the way they were meant to…

More to come on isotopes, hydrogen bonds, covalent bonding, solubility and dissociation soon!