All Seeing Eye
Admiral
Why do Electrons orbit Protons instead of Protons orbiting Electrons?
Protons And Electrons
- Thread starter All Seeing Eye
- Start date
Protons are a lot, lot bigger. Like a thousand times more massive. Though they have similar electric charges, they are not the same type of particle. Protons are baryons, made of quarks (2 up quarks and down quark). An electron is an elementary particle (a lepton to be exact) like quarks are, but as I said, a lot smaller.
Neutrons are protons that have absorbed an electron (which turns one of the up quarks into a down quark). The reverse also happens, where a neutron ejects an electron and returns to being a proton. This is called beta decay. A free neutron outside of an atomic nucleus will inevitably beta decay into a hydrogen atom, with a half-life of roughly 15 minutes. A neutron within a large, radioactive nucleus (like Plutonium 238) will eject a free electron, which is called beta radiation.
This is also why electrons stay in orbit and don't just merge with the proton. A free Neutron has more energy in it than a hydrogen atom, which is why the former is so unstable and the latter exists at all. You have to add energy to the system to "push" the electron into merging.
There's more to it, like how neutron creation generates a positron (an antielectron), which suggests that Data's brain would be radioactive. Good thing it was disposed of properly in a giant explosion in space.
Neutrons are protons that have absorbed an electron (which turns one of the up quarks into a down quark). The reverse also happens, where a neutron ejects an electron and returns to being a proton. This is called beta decay. A free neutron outside of an atomic nucleus will inevitably beta decay into a hydrogen atom, with a half-life of roughly 15 minutes. A neutron within a large, radioactive nucleus (like Plutonium 238) will eject a free electron, which is called beta radiation.
This is also why electrons stay in orbit and don't just merge with the proton. A free Neutron has more energy in it than a hydrogen atom, which is why the former is so unstable and the latter exists at all. You have to add energy to the system to "push" the electron into merging.
There's more to it, like how neutron creation generates a positron (an antielectron), which suggests that Data's brain would be radioactive. Good thing it was disposed of properly in a giant explosion in space.
Last edited:
