Elementum: A Latin word meaning "basic principle," "rudiment," or "first letter."
Just as letters are the basic building blocks of words, elements are the basic building blocks of matter.
An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances.
An element is a pure substance made entirely from one specific type of atom. Every atom in an element has the same number of protons. You cannot use chemistry to break an element down into anything simpler.
It is easy to confuse these terms. Think of them like flavours of ice cream.
An atom is a single particle. It's like having one single scoop of ice cream. It is the smallest individual piece of matter.
An element is the category or type of atom. It's like the flavour "Chocolate." Whether you have one scoop (an atom) or a whole tub, if it's all chocolate, the element is "Chocolate."
Scientists have identified 118 distinct elements. We organize them using the Periodic Table.
This is the "ID card" for an element. It tells you the number of protons in the nucleus. Carbon always has 6 protons; if it had 7, it would be Nitrogen.
Every element has a unique 1 or 2 letter symbol used worldwide. Note that the first letter is always capitalized, and the second is lower case.
Imagine holding a piece of charcoal in one hand and a sparkling diamond in the other. One is black, soft, and cheap. The other is clear, incredibly hard, and expensive. It is hard to believe, but they are both made of the exact same element: Carbon (atomic number 6).
Because elements are pure substances, the only difference between the charcoal and the diamond is how their atoms are arranged. In charcoal, the Carbon atoms are in messy, loose layers. In a diamond, the Carbon atoms are locked in a rigid, crystal structure. This shows that a single element can take different forms (called allotropes) while still being composed of the same fundamental building block.