An element is a pure substance made up of only one type of atom. Elements are the building blocks of all matter, just like letters are the building blocks of all words. There are currently 118 known elements represented on the periodic table; some are found in nature and others are created in laboratories. Each little block on the periodic table represents one element. Some examples of elements are gold, oxygen, neon, potassium, and tungsten. Each different element has atoms with a different and unique number of protons. This is called the atomic number.
