Atomic number

Okay kiddo, let's imagine you have a big box of toys. Each toy is different and has a name. Like your toy truck has the name "Trucky". Just like your toys, all the things in the world are made up of tiny units. We call these units "atoms". Every atom also has a name, just like your toys. We call this name the "atomic number".

The atomic number tells us how many tiny things called "protons" are in the center of an atom. These protons are like the building blocks of the atom. Just like how your toy truck has a certain number of wheels it needs to work, every atom needs a certain number of protons to work properly.

Some atoms have more protons than others, like how some of your toys are bigger than others. The number of protons in an atom determines what kind of element it is. Elements are like the different categories of toys you have in your box. For example, all your toy cars are in the "Cars" category, right? Similarly, all the atoms with the same atomic number belong to the same element.

So, when we talk about an atom's atomic number, we're really just counting the number of protons inside it. This number helps us identify what type of atom or element we're looking at.