Question

What is the relation between an atom and a molecule

Answer 1

In a simple definition, an atom is a basic building block of any matter (matter is anything that can be touched physically) and a molecule is a group of atoms bonded together.

For example, consider carbon dioxide, it can be represented like this . Here C represents one atom of carbon. And represents two atoms of oxygen. Carbon dioxide is a molecule . Here one carbon atom (C) and two oxygen atom () are bonded (combined or simply, stick together) to form carbon dioxide () molecule.

Everything is made up of atoms.

A molecule represents the smallest fundamental unit of a chemical compound that can take part in a chemical reaction.

Extra Note: Atoms consist of a heavy central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged particles called electrons. The nucleus contains positive particles (protons) and electrically neutral particles (neutrons)