Station 1 Worksheets

Cloze passage Name:______

ATOMS, PROTONS, ELECTRONS, AND NEUTRONS

All matter is made up of ______and atoms are made up of smaller particles.

The three main particles making up an atom are the ______,______,______.

Electrons spin around the center, or______, of atoms, in the same way the moon spins around the earth. The nucleus is made up of ______and ______.

Electrons contain a ______charge, protons a ______charge. Neutrons are ______-- they have neither a positive nor a negative charge.

Each atom has a specific number of electrons, protons and neutrons. No matter how many particles an atom has, the number of electrons usually needs to be the ______as the number of protons. If the numbers are the same, the atom is called balanced, and it is very stable.

So, if an atom had six protons, it should also have______.

Some kinds of atoms have loosely attached electrons.

An atom that loses electrons has more protons than electrons and is ______charged (+).

An atom that gains electrons has more negative particles and is ______charged (-).

A "charged" atom is called an "______.”

ATTRACTION AND REPULSION

Now, positive and negative charges behave in interesting ways. Did you ever hear the saying that opposites attract?

Two things with opposite, or different charges (a positive and a negative) will ______, or pull towards each other.

Things with the same charge (two positives or two negatives) will ______, or push away from each other.

A charged object will also attract something that is neutral. Think about how you can make a balloon stick to the wall. If you charge a balloon by rubbing it on your hair, it picks up extra electrons and has a ______charge. Holding it near a neutral object will make the charges in that object move. If it is a conductor, many electrons move easily to the other side, as far from the balloon as possible. If it is an insulator, the electrons in the atoms and molecules can only move very slightly to one side, away from the balloon. In either case, there are more positive charges closer to the negative balloon. ______attract. The balloon sticks. (At least until the electrons on the balloon slowly leak off.) It works the same way for neutral and positively charged objects

So what does all this have to do with static shocks? Or static electricity in hair? When you take off your wool hat, it rubs against your hair. Electrons move from your hair to the hat. A static charge builds up and now each of the hairs has the same positive charge. Remember, things with the same charge ______each other. So the hairs try to get as far from each other as possible. The farthest they can get is by standing up and away from the others. And that is how static electricity causes a bad hair day!

RESISTANCE

Electrons can be made to move from one atom to another. When those electrons move between the atoms, a current of ______is created.

The electrons move from one atom to another in a "______." One electron isattached and another electron is lost.

The______is passed from atom to atom when electricity is "passed."

Some kinds of atoms contain loosely attached electrons. These electrons can be made to move easily from one atom to another. When they move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created.

For example: In a piece of wire the electrons are passed from atom to atom, creating an ______from one end to the other.

______are very, very small. A single copper penny contains more than 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1x1022) electrons.

Electricity "______" or moves through some things better than others. The measurement of how well something conducts electricity is called its ______.

Resistance in wire depends on how ______

______

and ______

The thickness of wire is called its ______. The smaller the guage, the bigger the wire. Some of the largest thicknesses of regular wire is guage 1.

CONDUCTORS AND INSLUATORS

Different types of ______are used in making wire. You can have copper wire, aluminum wire, even steel wire. Each of these metals has a different resistance; how well the metal conducts electricity.

The ______the resistance of a wire, the better it conducts electricity.

______is used in many wires because it has a lower resistance than many other metals. The wires in your walls, inside your lamps and elsewhere are usually copper.

A piece of metal can be made to act like a heater. When an electrical current occurs, the resistance causes ______and the friction causes ______. The higher the resistance, the hotter it can get. So, a coiled wire high in resistance, like the wire in a hair dryer, can be very hot.

Some things conduct electricity very ______.

These are called ______. Rubber is a good insulator, and that's why rubber is used to cover wires in an electric cord. Glass is another good insulator. If you look at the end of a power line, you'll see that it is attached to some bumpy looking things. These are glass insulators. They keep the metal of the wires from touching the metal of the towers.

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