User:David E. Volk/Sandbox
My Sandbox:
The 94 naturally occuring chemical elements each have, by definition, a certain number of protons (Z). Z is called the elements' atomic number. In addition to protons, all chemical elements also have Z electrons when in the uncharged state. The elements hydrogen and helium, with only one or two proton, respectively, are the two smallest chemical elements. Plutonium is the largest naturally occuring chemical element. In addition to protons and electrons, chemical elements contain various numbers of neutrons, and atoms of a given chemical element with differing numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of that element. The most common isotope of the element hydrogen, H1 (hydrogen-1) has zero neutrons, and thus a total of 1 nucleons (protons and neutrons). Hydrogen is also found in two other isotope forms, H2 (deuterium and H3 (tritium, which contain one or two neutrons, respectively, and thus a total of two or three nucleons. Although chemical elements cannot be decomposed into smaller building blocks by chemical methods, they can be broken into there constituent parts, protons, neutrons and electrons, by physical methods, and protons and neutrons can be further broken down into their constituent parts, quarks, by smashiing atoms together in a high-energy cyclotron.
Every naturally occuring substance is composed of either pure chemical elements or combinations of chemical elements. A few commmon gasses consisting of only pure chemical elements include oxygen, neon, chlorine,nitrogen, hydrogen and argon. Pure common metals made from a single element include aluminum and iron, and common substances made from only one non-metallic chemical element include diamonds and graphite, both of which are made from pure carbon. Most substances in nature are made from a combination of two or more elements. Common table salt, sodium chloride, contains equal numbers of sodium and chlorine ions. Biological chemicals, including proteins, DNA, vitamins, carbohydrates, and fatty acids, are created almost exclusively with the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen.