What's Inside Everything? Meet the Atom
Grab a crayon. Break it in half. Break it again. Keep going in your imagination, tinier and tinier. If you could keep breaking it forever, you would reach a piece SO small you could never break it. That tiny piece is called an ATOM. Everything is made of atoms: you, your dog, the water in your cup, and even the air you breathe. Atoms are so small that it would take about a million of them lined up just to reach across ONE strand of your hair.
What You'll Learn
- An atom is the tiniest building block of everything. - Atoms are far too small to see, even with a regular magnifying glass. - Different atoms join up to make different things.
Atoms Are Like LEGO Bricks
Think about a big LEGO castle. It is made of lots of little bricks snapped together. Atoms are like the littlest bricks in the whole world. When atoms snap together in one way, they make water. When they snap together another way, they make sugar. Same tiny bricks, different builds!
A single grain of sand has more atoms in it than there are stars you could count in the whole night sky. That is a LOT of atoms in one speck!
Why Can't I See An Atom?
Your eyes can see a tiny ant. They can even see a crumb. But atoms are millions of times smaller than a crumb. Scientists use giant special machines called microscopes to spot them. The machine is bigger than your bed, just to see something smaller than dust!
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
What is an atom?
Match each thing to what it is made of.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Why can't you see a single atom with just your eyes?
Build With Atom-Bricks
Get some blocks or LEGO bricks. Pretend each block is one atom. 1) Snap a few together and call it 'water.' 2) Now take them apart and build a different shape and call it 'sugar.' 3) Show a grown-up how the SAME little bricks can build DIFFERENT things, just like real atoms do!
Everything you can touch, drink, or breathe is made of atoms. You are a giant castle made of trillions of tiny atom-bricks!
Want to keep learning?
Sign up for free to access the full curriculum — all subjects, all ages.
Start Learning Free