{"id":269512,"date":"2025-07-24T15:56:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=269512"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:56:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:56:02","slug":"if-an-atom-has-3-protons-3-neutrons-and-2-electrons-what-is-the-electrical-charge-of-the-atom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/24\/if-an-atom-has-3-protons-3-neutrons-and-2-electrons-what-is-the-electrical-charge-of-the-atom\/","title":{"rendered":"If an atom has 3 protons, 3 neutrons, and 2 electrons, what is the electrical charge of the atom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If an atom has 3 protons, 3 neutrons, and 2 electrons, what is the electrical charge of the atom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The electrical charge of an atom is determined by the difference between the number of protons and electrons it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, the atom has:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>3 protons<\/strong>, which each have a +1 charge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>3 neutrons<\/strong>, which have no charge (neutral).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2 electrons<\/strong>, which each have a -1 charge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>To find the overall charge of the atom, we subtract the number of electrons from the number of protons:Charge=Number&nbsp;of&nbsp;protons\u2212Number&nbsp;of&nbsp;electrons\\text{Charge} = \\text{Number of protons} &#8211; \\text{Number of electrons}Charge=Number&nbsp;of&nbsp;protons\u2212Number&nbsp;of&nbsp;electronsCharge=3\u22122=+1\\text{Charge} = 3 &#8211; 2 = +1Charge=3\u22122=+1<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means the atom has a <strong>positive charge of +1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Protons<\/strong> carry a positive charge, so their presence gives the atom a positive charge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Electrons<\/strong> carry a negative charge. If an atom has more electrons than protons, it will have a negative charge, and if it has more protons than electrons, it will have a positive charge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Neutrons<\/strong> do not affect the electrical charge because they are neutral.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the number of protons (3) is greater than the number of electrons (2), the atom is positively charged, and its charge is <strong>+1<\/strong>. This type of atom is called an <strong>ion<\/strong>, specifically a <strong>cation<\/strong>, because it has lost one electron compared to its neutral state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A neutral atom of this element (which is lithium, Li) would normally have 3 electrons to balance the 3 protons. However, with 2 electrons, the atom has a net positive charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner6-1873.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-269513\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If an atom has 3 protons, 3 neutrons, and 2 electrons, what is the electrical charge of the atom? The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The electrical charge of an atom is determined by the difference between the number of protons and electrons it has. In this case, the atom has: To find the overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}