2020 – 05 – The Interaction Between Elements

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How an element interacts with another atom depends on the number of electrons in the outer shell. Every atom fills out its outer shell to capacity. But some atoms don’t have enough valence electrons to fill its outer shell, and therefore are more willing to get rid of those electrons.
Water is a great example of this process. Hydrogen and oxygen both have outer shells that aren’t complete so oxygen borrows two hydrogen atoms to fill its outer shell. This chemical combination makes water.
The amount of protons an atom contains determines its atomic number. The atomic number is unique to each element, meaning that all atoms of the same element contain the same number of protons.