Which condition did you change?
Labs / Chemistry
Isotope Builder
Drop protons and neutrons into the nucleus while electrons swarm around it. The proton count alone decides which element you have made — change the neutrons to make isotopes, and change the electrons to make ions. Watch the notation, mass number, charge, and stability update as you go.
Labs / Chemistry / Isotope Builder
Isotope Builder
Drop protons and neutrons into the nucleus while electrons swarm around it. The proton count alone decides which element you have made — change the neutrons to make isotopes, and change the electrons to make ions. Watch the notation, mass number, charge, and stability update as you go.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Chemistry connects events too small to see with changes we can measure. This model helps you link particles, energy, and conditions to an observable result.
Explore
Try the model
p⁺ 6n⁰ 6e⁻ 6Element CarbonMass A 12Charge 0 (neutral)Notation ¹²₆CNuclide Stable
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Add a single proton to hydrogen. Why does the atom become a completely different element?
- Keep 6 protons but add or remove a neutron. When does carbon stay stable, and when does it turn radioactive?
- Take away an electron without touching the nucleus. What happens to the charge — and is it still the same element?
- Which nuclei can you build that are stable, and which ones always come out radioactive?
- How many neutrons does a heavy element like calcium need compared with its number of protons?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Describe what happened at the particle or energy level, then connect it to the result you saw. A strong explanation names both the cause and the evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What happened to the particles or energy?
What observation supports your explanation?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.