What is the order of atoms, molecules and elements?
The ATOM is the smallest unit of an element that still retains all the properties of that element. An ELEMENT is a pure chemical substance consisting of only one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. A large group of IDENTICLE atoms, lets say a copper wire would still be elemental copper, like-wise both 02(oxygen) and 03(ozone) are elemental oxygen but different ALLOTROPES (property of some chemical elements to exist in two or more different forms) of the same element. Needles to say allotropes will have distinct physical ande chemical properties. Another example of allotropy is graphite and diamond, both are elemental carbon but arranged in a different shapes and hence, the propeties are very different. When you have the combination of two or more distinct elements held together by covalent bonds, then we speak of molecules. Now if we are dealing with atoms linked by ionic bonds then we can not speak of molecules since they are
