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Lesson · Grade 7 · Science

Elements: One Kind of Atom

  • Grade 7
  • Science
  • 1 min 9 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC7-SC-10

Zooming in on copper, oxygen gas and water shows that copper and oxygen each contain only one kind of atom, even though oxygen's atoms are joined in pairs, so both are elements and pure substances. Water has oxygen and hydrogen atoms joined together, so it is a compound and not an element, and the video ends on the recap that an element is a pure substance made of only one kind of atom.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

Copper, oxygen and water. Which of these are elements?

Let us zoom in on a piece of pure copper.

Transcript

What the lesson says

Copper, oxygen and water. Which of these are elements?

Let us zoom in on a piece of pure copper.

Every atom in it is the same kind, a copper atom.

A substance made of only one kind of atom is called an element.

Now let us zoom in on the oxygen gas in this jar.

Here the atoms are joined together in pairs.

But every atom is an oxygen atom, so oxygen is an element too.

There are 118 known elements, and each one has its own kind of atom.

Every element is a pure substance, because it has only one kind of atom.

Is water an element? Let us zoom in on a drop.

Water has two kinds of atoms, oxygen and hydrogen, joined together.

So water is not an element. It is a compound, another kind of pure substance.

So an element is a pure substance made of only one kind of atom.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 7

Science, Chemistry: elements and compounds are pure substancesBC7-SC-10

Previous: Atoms: What Everything Is Made OfNext: Finding an element on the periodic table

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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