What’s the difference between neon and ammonia?<\/p>\n
In its most common isotope, a single neon molecule (one atom, in fact) contains 10 neutrons, 10 electrons, and 10 protons. A single ammonia molecule also contains 10 neutrons, 10 electrons, and 10 protons. It’s the same stuff! I think this is very cool.<\/p>\n
Update:<\/b> Well, I can’t count. Ammonia only has 7 neutrons. I know this kind of phenomenon is possible, because I set it as a problem once in a mini-course I gave on metals and superconductors, and people came back with several solutions. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what they were.<\/p>\n
Update II:<\/b> Potassium Bromide (K Br) and Calcium Selenide (Ca Se) appear to do the trick, assuming no more silly mistakes. Can anyone find a simpler example?<\/p>\n
Update III:<\/b> Helium and Deuterium both have 2 protons, 2 neutrons, and 2 electrons. It’d still be nice to have examples involving two more familiar substances.<\/p>\n
Update IV:<\/b> Commenter Kurt points out a better example: Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) and Carbon Dioxide, both with 22 electrons, protons, and neutrons. Any better? I think salt and nickel 58 (the most common isotope) also provide an example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What’s the difference between neon and ammonia? In its most common isotope, a single neon molecule (one atom, in fact) contains 10 neutrons, 10 electrons, and 10 protons. A single ammonia molecule also contains 10 neutrons, 10 electrons, and 10 protons. It’s the same stuff! I think this is very cool. Update: Well, I can’t… Continue reading More is different<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelnielsen.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}