Everything Is Made Of Atoms

Imagine a pure gold ring. Divide it in half and give one of the halves away. Keep dividing and dividing and dividing. Soon you will have a piece so small you will not be able to see it without a microscope. It may be very, very small, but it is still a piece of gold.

If you could keep dividing it into smaller and smaller pieces, you would finally get to the smallest piece of gold possible. It is called an atom. If you divided it into smaller pieces, it would no longer be gold. Everything around us is made of atoms and scientists so far know of 118 different kinds. These different kinds of atoms are called elements. There are 98 elements that exist naturally although some are only found in very small amounts. Four of these 118 elements have reportedly been discovered, but have not yet been confirmed. Atoms join together in many different combinations to form molecules, and create all of the materials you see around you.