An atom of iron is represented as 56 Fe 26 Give the number of protons, neutrons and electrons in this atom of iron.

We see two numbers given for the description of an atom on the periodic, one larger than the other. The larger number is in reference to the atomic mass of the atom, which is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. The lower number is the atomic number of the atom which is the number of protons in the nucleus.If we inspect the symbol given further we can see that there is no formal charge on the atom, meaning it is neutral. Due to this fact, we can tell that the number of negative charges in the nucleus (electrons) are equal to the number of positive charges (protons). From the previous point we know that the number of protons is equal to the atomic number and similarly, we can then say the number of electrons in the atom is also equal to the atomic number.

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