Silicon Atom Science Assignment - Anas Emerizal

Atoms are the building blocks of all matter. They are the most basic form of matter. They are made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. The neutrons and protons are held together inside the nucleus of the atom while the electrons circle around the nucleus. These particles consist of different charges. The protons have a positive charge, the electrons have a negative charge and the neutrons have a neutral charge or no charge. Some atoms have the same amount of protons and electrons. All the elements on the periodic table correspond to a certain atom.

Below is the 3D model of silicon...

Silicon is the second most abundant element on Earth. 25.7% of the Earth's Crust's mass is silicon. Its symbol is Si and its atomic number is 14. This means that it consists of 14 electrons and 14 protons. Silicon also has 15 neutrons. Its atomic mass, which is the total average mass of neutrons + electrons + protons, is 28.085. At room temperature, silicon is found as a solid. It has a melting point of 1414 degrees Celsius and a boiling point of 3265 degrees Celsius. Silicon can mostly be found as silicon oxides such as sand, quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint, jasper and opal. Silicon can also be found in asbestos, feldspar, clay and mica. The silicon is chemically extracted from the material. Silicon can even be found in the human skeleton. Silicon can be used for many different purposes. It is used to make pots and glass. It is also used to make computer chips and transistors.

Silicon is a hard crystalline (grey-black) or amorphous (brown) metalloid. It is number 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness. They are mainly found in nature as oxides. Silicon is not toxic however respiratory problems may occur if it is inhaled as a fine silica dust. Despite it looking like a metal, silicon is only a semi-conductor, which means that it cannot conduct electricity like normal metals. Silicon's solid form is not very reactive as it does not react to oxygen, water and most acids. However it does react to halogens, which are elements that contain salt, and dilute alkaline. Since its melting point is quite high, it is usually found in a solid form. Similarly to water, silicon expands when frozen. Only four other elements expand when frozen. Silicon's lattice structure is a diamond cubic crystal structure. Other elements who have this structure is carbon and germanium.

Some useful links for further information on silicon include:

• http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/14/silicon
• https://www.webelements.com/silicon/
• http://www.livescience.com/28893-silicon.html
• http://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Inorganic_Chemistry/Descriptive_Chemistry/Elements_Organized_by_Block/2_p-Block_Elements/Group_14%3A_The_Carbon_Family/Chemistry_of_Silicon
• http://www.chem4kids.com/files/elements/014_speak.html

The programming that I did during the day was surprisingly fun. It was a mix of fun and slightly challenging. To do the electrons and nucleus were easy. However, I took it one step further and even showed each neutron and proton inside the nucleus, which took an excessively long amount of time (about 1 and a half hours). Another part that took me a while to understand the logistics of was the spinning of the shells with the electrons. We did not realise that we had to do each shell and its electrons separately instead of placing all three shells at the same time and then putting all the electrons. So we had to restart the whole process of the shell. Figuring out how to use the command to make the spin look 3D took about an hour.

This is the moving version of the silicon atom model...

This is the link to the 3D model...

Silicon_Atomreal.x3d

This is the link to the logo program...

Silicon_atom.logo