An electron is one the two structureless particles found in ordinary matter. The other is a nuark. [Ignore the muon, tau and three neutrinos — they are exotic and not normal. Each of the three quarks in protons and neutrons is composed of three protons. Quarks and electrons can also exist in antielectrons, or antiquarks. They are identical, except for the charge reverse sign.
The electron has an electric charge of -1. The proton has an electrical charge of +1. The neutron does not have an electric charge
An electric charge for a quark is -1/3 or +2/3.
Three quarks of proton are quarks that have charge of +2/3, +2/3, or -1/3 =+1. These quarks are called “up” and “down” respectively.
Three quarks make up the neutron, each with an electric charge of zero: one “up” and two “down” quarks — -1/3 and -1/3 respectively, and +2/3 = 0.
The masses of the electron and proton are:
Neutron = 1.6749286*10^-27 kgProton = 1.6726231*10^-27 kg
Electron = 9.1093897*10^-31 kg
In units of energy equivalent to kg units
Neutron = 939.56563 MeV
Proton = 938.27231 meV
Electron = 0.51099906 MeV
The ratio of the mass o the electron and the mass o the proton is 1:1836. The proton is 1,836x more massive than the electron.
Comparing all three masses to the neutron’s largest mass, 1:
Neutron = 1
Proton = 0.99862349
Electron = 0.00054386734
Attracted with a force F, opposite electric charges attract
F = k[q1*q2/r2]
The electron and proton have opposite charges of 1. They attract one another according to the inverse square law. At distance r, the force is F. At distance 2r, the F is only 1/4th and at 3r, the F only 1/9th. At an infinite separation between two charges, this weakening is continued “ad infinitem”. The electric force is weaker between one and infinite charges, but it never completely disappears.
Similar charges repel — protons repel protons and electrons repel electrons — both forces are created by the same formula.
The attraction and repulsion are independent of the mass of either the electron or proton. (Gravity follows the same inverse square weakening of force as electricity, but gravity is weaker than electricity. Also, the mass of two objects matters to the force gravity.
Because the neutron is free of electric charge, it doesn’t attract nor repel the electron.
Both the proton and neutron have no electric force because of the neutron’s zero electric charge. To tango, you need two people.
Why is it that nucleus containing two or more protons doesn’t explode from the force pulling protons apart? Quarks are here to help.
The electromagnetic force of electric charge is just one of the four forces. Each proton and neutron is infused with the SNF from the “color charge”. The SNF operates within the nucleus and is extremely short-ranged. Although the quark is charged with an electric charge, it could interact with electrons. However, quarks are not separate entities apart from virtual quarks that have very short lives. It’s as though electrons and quarks never interact in any meaningful way. If they are close enough, each proton bonds to the other by the SNF. The SNF also binds neutrons and protons to neutrons.
(The WNF refers to radioactive decay.
The attraction to proton(s) is what gives rise to the orbital energy of an electron. Hydrogen is the simplest example: one electron orbiting one proton without a neutron. The electron orbit’s “ground state” has the smallest separation (minimal radius) and lowest energy permitted by quantum physics. This energy comes from E =h*f. Where f is the frequency of an electron as if it were wave and h “Planck’s constant” is a tiny factor that makes E appear in discrete, grainy steps rather than continuous. Quantum physics limits the number of wavelengths that can fit within any orbit’s circumference. This constraint on frequency and wavelength must also be adhered to by the next larger (and more energetic) orbit. E = h*f is the fundamental principle that electrons cannot move up or down between orbits based on their energy absorption and emission. The electrons absorb photons and push them into higher orbits when their E matches the slots created by the nucleus electrical attraction. Ground state hydrogen is 13.6eV. There are two types of electrons: up and down. One orbit can contain one, but not both. Each orbital shell holds a certain number of electrons. If the outermost shell is full, it is less reactive with other elements. If the orbital “shell” contains only one electron, the force that holds it to the nucleus may not be strong enough and an element nearby might steal that electron by using the second element’s nuclear prototons. This results in ionization and valence binding of two elements, which forms molecules such as water (H2O). In a process known as “the photoelectric effect”, electrons can be knocked out of atoms by photons.
To shoot an extra proton into a nucleus full of protons or neutrons, you need to push the proton past electric repulsion until it reaches close enough to the nuclear SNF for it to grab. It is possible to shoot a neutron, or electron into a nucleus without having to overcome any repulsion. Hiroshima’s atom bomb produced neutrons and uranium. The SNF couldn’t hold any more protons or neutrons, and the SNF was just barely able to overcome the proton-proton electrical repulsion. This extra neutron “split” the uranium into smaller nuclei that could be held by the SNF (“fission”) Three more neutrons were also released, which then caused the “chain reaction” to produce three more unstable and wobbly uranium nuclei. A small percentage of the mass was converted to 15 kilotons TNT explosive energy.
Fusion is the collision of two nuclei with more energy than the repelling electric force. The SNF can fuse these nuclei to form a heavier atom. Due to the low number of protons, light atoms such as hydrogen and helium are possible to fuse. Larger atoms, such as uranium, can be split. Fusion is able to release far more energy than fission. Stars use fusion in the core, where pressure and temperature reach millions of degrees. The wild energy is sufficient to allow small atoms fuse.
A neutron can be transformed into a proton by turning an electron into a nuclear nucleus. Each chemical element in the periodic table only has one number of protons. Hydrogen has 1 proton and Helium has 2. You can change the order of the elements by adding a proton or nucleus.
WNF is responsible for radioactive decay. It comes in three main forms: alpha decay, beta decay, and gamma decay.
The nucleus of alpha emits a helium nuclear nucleus (2 protons, 2 neutrons) from its nucleus. This causes the element to be reduced by two protons.
There are two types of beta: beta-minus or beta-plus. Beta-minus is when a neutron becomes a proton. One of its quarks flips by the WNF from down to up, and the nucleus releases an electron and its 1 charge from this change. One proton is transformed into the element. A proton can become a neutron in beta-plus. One of the proton’s quarks flips up and down by the WNF, and the nucleus releases a positron (an +1 antielectron) and a neutrino. This causes the element to be reduced by one proton. Gamma decay refers to the first alpha, beta or third-order decay. The nucleus then emits a gamma particle.
Within a given range, each element can have a different number or combination of neutrons. An “isotope” is an element that has a different number of neutrons.
Although the electron orbits the nucleus, the attraction of protons doesn’t cause the electron to “collapse into the nucleus”. This is because quantum physics’ “uncertainty principle”, which means that BOTH the position and momentum are not known with precise precision, and both can be affected by the attraction of protons. If one is more accurate, there will always be uncertainty in the other. If the electron was known to be exactly in the nucleus, then its momentum would be quite large. The electron’s momentum would never be stopped if it were to stop in any one place. There is a limit to how narrow the electron’s orbit can be. The more it does this, the greater its momentum gets. It then flies away from the nucleus before collapsing onto protons. This principle outweighs electric attraction.