Question

How many protons, neutrons, and electrons does a neutral hydrogen atom have?

Answer 1

Hint: We have to remember that the hydrogen atom is a chemical element having the symbol, ‘H’ with atomic number one. The atomic mass of hydrogen is equal to \[1.00794\]. The hydrogen atom always exists as a diatomic gas,\[\left( {{H_2}} \right)\]If two hydrogen atoms are combined, there is a formation of hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen atom has mainly three isotopes and that is, proteium, deuterium and tritium.

Complete answer:
We need to know that the hydrogen atom is the simplest chemical element in the periodic table. The neutral hydrogen atom contains a single proton which is positively charged and single electron which is negatively charged and one neutron. It is represented as, \[^1{H_1}\]. The neutral hydrogen atom does not contain any charge. Therefore, the number of electrons and protons is equal to one. Which means, it has equal number of positive and negative electric charges, (protons and neutrons), then the total electric charge of the hydrogen atom is equal to zero. Hence, the atom is known as neutral.

Note:
We have to know that the number of protons, electrons and neutrons present in the neutral hydrogen atom is equal to one, one and zero. And the electric charge of a neutral hydrogen atom is equal to zero due to the same number of protons and electrons. If the hydrogen atom contains one proton, one neutron and one electron, which is known as deuterium and it is a heavy isotope of hydrogen. The number of neutrons is found by subtraction of the number of protons from the mass number. Hence, the number of neutrons of neutral hydrogen will be zero.