At this point, we have just examined Adams, where we're dealing with the neutral element that has the same number of protons and electrons. Now, when the number of protons and electrons are different, that's what we go into ions. Ions themselves are created from loss or gaining of electrons by elements. So in the creation of an ion, or either losing electrons or gaining electrons, we're going to stay here. When an element loses electrons, it becomes a positively charged ion called a cat ion. Now this makes sense. You're losing negatively charged electrons. If I'm losing something negative, I'm becoming more positive now. On the other end, when an element gains electrons so it's gaining negative electrons, it becomes a negatively charged ion called in an ion. So just remember, cat ions are positively charged. Ions and ions are negatively charged ions. We're going to stay here a new term. Isil electronic. This is what elements have the same number off electrons. So just remember the difference between atoms and ions is that atoms have the same number of protons and electrons. But when we become an ion, we've either lost electrons or gained electrons. This causes a difference in the number of protons and electrons within a given element, so keep that in mind when dealing with ions.