Why Does Changing Just One Proton Change an Element?

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*NOTE - Erwin Schrodinger was Austrian-Irish, not Australian-Irish. We goofed in editing. Apologies to our proud Austrian viewers! And to our Australian audience, as much as you'd like to claim him, I'm afraid he belongs to a different continent.
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REFERENCES
Origin of all elements: • The Surprising Origin ...
How Quantum Mechanics predicts electron structure: • The Surprising Origin ...
How entropy drives all events: • The Startling Reason E...
WHY IS SODIUM A METAL BUT ARGON IS A GAS?
Electron configuration determines this. Sodium atoms can form metallic bond because the positively charge cation K+ forms an electrostatic attraction with the delocalized electrons from the outer shell. Argon cannot form such bonds because there is no delocalized electron nor cation formed, since the electron structure of the atom is already stable.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Adding or subtracting one proton: drastic change
1:58 The simple answer
3:00 Soylent is best tasting
4:07 Why are elements not classified by electrons?
5:35 Number of protons can change, but not in chemistry
6:07 Why proton count is used to classify elements
6:50 Why are there orbitals and electron shells in atoms?
9:01 How chemistry works: all about energy
12:24 Why aren't all elements Noble elements?
SUMMARY
Why does changing just one proton in the nucleus of an atom make a different element? How can a single proton make such a huge difference in an element’s properties?
The simple answer is: The number of protons determines the number of electrons the atom needs in order to be neutral. The number and configuration of the electrons of an atom determines its chemical properties. So since the number of electrons is determined by the number of protons, changing even just proton will change an element's chemical properties.
If so, why don’t we classify elements based on their number of electrons instead of protons? The reason is because electron numbers for most atoms, can be changed by taking on or giving away electrons to and from other atoms. This is the basis of chemistry. But the change in electrons does not affect the element's essential nature. It still retains its atomic properties.
But the number of protons never changes for most elements. It remains the same because protons cannot be exchanged with other atoms like electrons can in chemical reactions. So the proton count of an element does not change in chemical reactions. This proton number, in turn, determines the number of electrons the atom needs to be neutral. And that in turn, determines the behavior of the atom when it interacts with other atoms chemically, i.e., the bonds it can form. And this determines both its chemical and physical properties.
The proton number determines the propensity of that element to keep, give away, or share its outermost electrons with other atoms.
Electrons in the outermost shell of an atom determine its chemical properties. Why are there different electron shells? Atoms and molecules tend to favor the state with the lowest potential energy, because of the second law of thermodynamics - the law of entropy.
Solving the Schrodinger equation shows how the energies of the electrons in any given atom will be distributed in its ground state. When we solve it, we find that electrons are distributed in orbitals and shells around the nucleus.
An orbital can contain only a maximum two electrons due to the Pauli exclusion principle. The Schrodinger equation shows that as the number of electrons increases in an atom, they occupy different energy levels or shells around its nucleus. These shells can only accommodate a maximum of a fixed number of electrons. These numbers are 2, 10, 18, 36, 54, 86.
So for the few elements that have exactly these protons numbers, they will have the precise number of electrons that make their atomic structure energetically stable. Consequently, they will not have the propensity to take on or lose any of their electrons to other atoms. These are the Noble elements.
Chemistry works by elements trading electrons to form neutrally charged systems that are more energetically favorable, than the elements on their own. Proton number is key because it is the main factor in determining what number of electrons an element would prefer. It boils down to energy and charge conservation.
#protons
#elements
One could ask, why aren’t all elements noble elements. Why didn’t nature make all elements stable? The reason is that elements were formed in fusion reactions within the cores of stars or star processes. The fusion process results in nuclei with all kinds of different numbers of protons, not just the noble elements. Fusion is a nuclear process that just makes stable nucle, not a chemical process that optimizes electron shell stability.