we now know that the atom is not the smallest particle of matter and that is broken down into protons neutrons and electrons but just knowing these particles exist is not enough in this video we're going to look at the three subatomic particles and what role they play in the atom [Music] [Applause] in order to understand the significance of the three subatomic particles there are a couple Concepts you need to remember from other videos what is an atom Atom versus ions and Isotopes if you do not remember this information or need a refresher please check out our videos on all of these topics this slide summarizes the three subatomic particles and their role in the atom pause the video now and write this down we will cover each particle in more detail as we go through this video here we see what happens when we change the different particles if you change the number of protons you will change the element if you change the number of neutrons you will change the mass and that will create an isotope and if you change the number of electrons you will change the charge and that will create an ion the proton is a subatomic particle that gives us the identity of the element the proton is located in the nucleus the number of protons will be the same as the atomic number found on the periodic table remember that the atomic number is the number at the top of each Square in the periodic table notice that every element has a different atomic number which means they all have a different number of protons for example oxygen will always have eight protons as we see here the atomic number is eight magnesium will always have 12 protons because it has an atomic number of 12. if you change a number of protons you will change the identity of the element the neutron is located in the nucleus and serves two roles in the atom the first role is that it helps to buffer the positively charged protons in the nucleus particles that have the same charge repel each other this means that they do not want to be close together because all protons are positive they repel each other the neutron acts as a buffer between the protons so the nucleus of the atom does not just break apart the second row the neutron serves is that it contributes to the mass of the atom remember that the mass number is calculated by adding together the number of protons and the number of neutrons we just learned that if you change the number of protons and you will change to a new element so if you want to change the mass of an atom but keep it as the same element you can change the number of neutrons changing the number of neutrons changes the mass which creates an isotope the electron is the final subatomic particle it is located outside the nucleus in the electron cloud and is the particle that is mainly responsible for elements chemical reactivity it is also the main particle responsible for changing the charge of the atom as we discussed in our Atom versus ion video an ion is simply an atom with a charge there are two charged particles in the atom the proton and the electron changing either of these particles will change the charge of the atom as we learned previously changing the number of protons will change the identity of the element so if we want to keep the identity the same and only change the charge we have to change the number of electrons electrons are negative so adding electrons will make the charge negative and removing electrons will make the charge positive if you want to learn more about calculating the number of protons neutrons and electrons in an atom or an ion check out our videos to summarize what we have covered in this video I want to bring back the chart from the beginning remember that changing the number of protons will change the identity of the element changing the number of neutrons will change the mass which creates an isotope and changing the number of electrons will change the charge which turns the atom into an ion now you should have a better understanding about the role of each subatomic particle in the atom if you found this video helpful please like the video and subscribe to the channel to help us be able to produce more helpful science content if there's a specific topic you need help with please let us know in the comments [Music]