Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol p, H +, or 1 H + with a positive electric charge of +1 e (elementary charge).Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately 1836 times the mass of an electron (the proton-to-electron mass ratio).
A 1906 proposal to change to electrion failed because Hendrik Lorentz preferred to keep electron. [25] [26] The word electron is a combination of the words electric and ion. [27] The suffix -on which is now used to designate other subatomic particles, such as a proton or neutron, is in turn derived from electron. [28] [29]
Protons define the entire charge of a nucleus, and hence its chemical identity. Neutrons are electrically neutral, but contribute to the mass of a nucleus to nearly the same extent as the protons. Neutrons can explain the phenomenon of isotopes (same atomic number with different atomic mass). The main role of neutrons is to reduce electrostatic ...
The mass of the neutron is greater than that of the proton by 1.293 32 MeV/c 2, [25] hence the neutron's mass provides energy sufficient for the creation of the proton, electron, and anti-neutrino. In the decay process, the proton, electron, and electron anti-neutrino conserve the energy, charge, and lepton number of the neutron. [26]
The negatively charged electron has a mass of about 1 / 1836 of that of a hydrogen atom. The remainder of the hydrogen atom's mass comes from the positively charged proton. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in its nucleus. Neutrons are neutral particles having a mass slightly greater than that of the proton.
Beta decay (and electron capture): these processes are regulated by the weak force, and result from a transformation of a neutron into a proton, or a proton into a neutron. The neutron to proton transition is accompanied by the emission of an electron and an antineutrino, while proton to neutron transition (except in electron capture) causes ...
A proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark, linked together by gluons. The quarks' color charge are also visible. The neutrons and protons in the atomic nuclei are baryons – the neutron is composed of two down quarks and one up quark, and the proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark. [29]
Since protons and neutrons have approximately the same mass (and the mass of the electrons is negligible for many purposes) and the mass defect of the nucleon binding is always small compared to the nucleon mass, the atomic mass of any atom, when expressed in daltons (making a quantity called the "relative isotopic mass"), is within 1% of the ...