The atomic number of oxygen is 6. this means that oxygen has 6 positively charged particles called protons in its nucleus. an atom does not possess any charge. what is the number of electrons (negatively charged particles) in an oxygen atom?

Hello! Your answer is 6 electrons.

You're looking at an atom with 6 protons. This means that its charge is 6+, or 6 times positively charged. To balance this out, and make it not have a charge, we add electrons. For each electron, there is -1 charge. Therefore, we are looking at 6 electrons to cancel out the 6+ charge.

Hope this helps!

radioactive decay occurs in unstable atomic nuclei – that is, ones that don't have enough binding energy to hold

the nucleus together due to an excess of either protons or neutrons.