What is the smallest particle of an element that retains the properties of that element?
An element is composed of a nucleus and electrons we call this part an ‘atom’. The simplest known is Hydrogen which has one proton and one neutron making the nucleus and one electron. By changing the number of proton and neutrons as well as the number of electrons you can create different elements, even ones that don’t naturally exist in nature. There is no smallest part of an element that retains all the properties of that element except an atom. Atoms can be broken down to neutrons, prtons and electrons, which can be further broken down to even smaller particles… none of them will contain any property of a specific atom however they can be combined to create other atoms.
