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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).
The elementary charge, usually denoted by e, is a fundamental physical constant, defined as the electric charge carried by a single proton (+1 e) or, equivalently, the magnitude of the negative electric charge carried by a single electron, which has charge −1 e. [2] [a]
An electron generates an electric field that exerts an attractive force on a particle with a positive charge, such as the proton, and a repulsive force on a particle with a negative charge. The strength of this force in nonrelativistic approximation is determined by Coulomb's inverse square law .
For ordinary nuclei composed of protons and neutrons, this is equal to the proton number (n p) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of every atom of that element. The atomic number can be used to uniquely identify ordinary chemical elements. In an ordinary uncharged atom, the atomic number is also equal to the number of electrons.
Thus, every proton in the nucleus must occupy a quantum state different from all other protons, and the same applies to all neutrons of the nucleus and to all electrons of the electron cloud. [ 45 ] A nucleus that has a different number of protons than neutrons can potentially drop to a lower energy state through a radioactive decay that causes ...
The proton has a charge of +e, and the electron has a charge of −e. Today, a negative charge is defined as the charge carried by an electron and a positive charge is that carried by a proton . Before these particles were discovered, a positive charge was defined by Benjamin Franklin as the charge acquired by a glass rod when it is rubbed with ...
For example, an electron and a positron, each with a mass of 0.511 MeV/c 2, can annihilate to yield 1.022 MeV of energy. A proton has a mass of 0.938 GeV/c 2. In general, the masses of all hadrons are of the order of 1 GeV/c 2, which makes the GeV/c 2 a convenient unit of mass for particle physics: [4]
In physics, the proton-to-electron mass ratio (symbol μ or β) is the rest mass of the proton (a baryon found in atoms) divided by that of the electron (a lepton found in atoms), a dimensionless quantity, namely: μ = m p /m e = 1 836.152 673 426 (32). [1]