Carbon is an important element. It is the backbone for living organisms A Carbon atom has square protons, neutrons, and square electrons. square

## Step 1:An element is primarily defined by the number of protons in its nucleus. This is known as the atomic number. Each element has a unique atomic number.## Step 2:For the element carbon ( ), the atomic number is 6. This means that a carbon atom must have 6 protons.## Step 3:In a neutral carbon atom, the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons. Therefore, a carbon atom has 6 electrons.## Step 4:The most common isotope of carbon is carbon-12 ( ). This isotope has a mass number of 12, which is the sum of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.## Step 5:Given that a carbon-12 atom has 6 protons, the number of neutrons is calculated as follows: ### #