How Many Protons Are in Nitrogen?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Last Reviewed:October 22, 2024 by Gabrielle Marks

How Many Electrons in Nitrogen
How Many Protons Are In Nitrogen?

Nitrogen has seven protons, 2 protons on the 1st shell and 5 protons on the second. The periodic table has several categorizations for its elements, and one of these is the atomic number. The atomic number communicates how many protons an element possesses. One atom of nitrogen will always have seven protons. Likewise, if you find an atom with seven protons in its nucleus, it will always be nitrogen. There are no overlaps in the atomic numbering system.

What Is an Atom’s Nucleus?

What Is the Atomic Radius of Magnesium
The atomic radius of magnesium is approximately 150 picometers. A picometer is an incredibly small unit of measurement within the metric system-one picometer is equal to one trillionth of a meter.

An atom is a term for a single unit of an element. Atoms compose every physical object in the world, including your chair, your beverage, and the atmosphere you breathe. An atom possesses several important characteristics, one of the most important of which is its nucleus. The nucleus of an atom is the centermost part. It is composed of several particles known as protons and neutrons.

What Are Protons?

Protons are particles with a positive charge. They bundle together in the nucleus along with neutrons. Their positive charge attracts electrons, which are found in the atom’s outer shell layers. Electrons are negatively charged particles and often interact with the outer shells of other atoms to form chemical compounds. However, the number of electrons that can be held or bonded is ultimately dependent upon the number of protons.

What about Other Forms of Nitrogen?

How Many Protons Are In Nitrogen - Compounds
Potassium nitrate, a nitrogen compound, is frequently used in fertilizers.

The atomic number is an element’s one reliable identifier. Although elements can appear in all the states of matter, they will always retain the same number of protons. States of matter involve a change in temperature and/or pressure, not atomic variations. Although various isotopes of nitrogen can be found in nature or made in the laboratory, they each have the same number of protons. Isotopes come about from changing the number of neutrons in the nucleus, not the number of protons. Although nitrogen can form chemical compounds with other elements, such as bonding with potassium to form potassium nitrate, it does so by sharing electrons, not by changing protons.

References

Los Alamos National Laboratory – “Periodic Table of Elements: Nitrogen

NIST – “Periodic Table of the Elements

NDT Resource Center – “Subatomic Particles

Frostburg State University – Chemistry Department – “What Is an Isotope?

Glossary of Terms

Electron: an elementary particle consisting of a charge of negative electricity equal to about 1.602 × 10−19 coulomb and having a mass when at rest of about 9.109 × 10−31 kilogram or about 11836 that of a proton.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Isotope: Atoms of the same element can have different numbers of neutrons; the different possible versions of each element are called isotopes.
Colorado State University

Nucleus:  the positively-charged center of an atom that usually contains the protons and neutrons.
Biology-online

Proton:  an elementary particle that is identical with the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, that along with the neutron is a constituent of all other atomic nuclei, that carries a positive charge numerically equal to the charge of an electron, and that has a mass of 1.673 × 10−27 kilogram.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary