In a way, passing an array as argument always loses a dimension. The reason behind is that, for historical reasons, arrays cannot be directly copied, and thus what is really passed is a pointer. This is a common source of errors for novice programmers.
atomic number represents the protons in atom. As a example hydrogen has one proton and atomic number is 1.
The atomic number refers to the number of protons in an elements nucleus. Each element has a unique atomic number and is known by that number until it receives an official name. For example, the two new superheavy elements 113 and 115 have 113 and 115 protons, respectively, in their nuclei.