# Making and aligning empty boxes

I want to create three empty boxes aligned like so using latex, so that my students can fill in proton and neutron numbers and the atomic symbol for a radioactive decay worksheet.

Any ideas how I can do this?

You could use picture mode or some low level programming.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\particle}[1][1cm]{%
\begingroup
\setlength{\fboxsep}{-\fboxrule}%
\leavevmode
\vbox to 2.2\dimexpr#1\relax{%
\hbox{\fbox{\rule{0pt}{#1}\rule{#1}{0pt}}}
\vfill
\hbox{\fbox{\rule{0pt}{#1}\rule{#1}{0pt}}}
}%
\kern3pt
\fbox{\rule{0pt}{2.2\dimexpr#1\relax}\rule{1.5\dimexpr#1\relax}{0pt}}%
\endgroup
}

\begin{document}

\end{document}


Using tikz, it is as easy as this:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1]
\draw[thick] (0,0)rectangle(1,1) (0,1.2)rectangle(1,2.2) (1.2,0)rectangle(2.7,2.2);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


You can use this in a newcommand for your convenience to insert it at your document wherever you want. You can also change the option scale=1 as you wish.

A simple code with hhline and a tabular environment:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{array, multirow, hhline}

\begingroup\setlength\doublerulesep{8pt}\setlength\arrayrulewidth{3pt}
\begin{tabular}{|p{2cm}|| p{4cm}|}
\hhline{|-||-|}
\rule{0pt}{2cm} & \multirow{2}{=}{}\\
\hhline{:=:|~|}
\rule{0pt}{2cm} &\\
\hhline{|-||-|}
\end{tabular}\endgroup}%

\begin{document}