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A model of an atomic nucleus showing it as a compact bundle of protons (red) and neutrons (blue), the two types of nucleons.In this diagram, protons and neutrons look like little balls stuck together, but an actual nucleus (as understood by modern nuclear physics) cannot be explained like this, but only by using quantum mechanics.
The atomic nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons (collectively called nucleons). In the Standard model of particle physics, nucleons are in the group called hadrons, the smallest known particles in the universe to have measurable size and shape. [1] Each is in turn composed of three quarks.
The problem of defining a radius for the atomic nucleus has some similarity to that of defining a radius for the entire atom; neither has well defined boundaries.However, basic liquid drop models of the nucleus imagine a fairly uniform density of nucleons, theoretically giving a more recognizable surface to a nucleus than an atom, the latter being composed of highly diffuse electron clouds ...
The atomic nucleus shown expanded more than 10,000 times its size relative to the atom; electrons have no measurable diameter. The Rutherford model is a name for the first model of an atom with a compact nucleus. The concept arose from Ernest Rutherford discovery of the nucleus. Rutherford directed the Geiger–Marsden experiment in 1909, which ...
In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number (nucleon number). Until the 1960s, nucleons were thought to be elementary particles, not made up of smaller parts.
The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol Z) of a chemical element is the charge number of its atomic nucleus. 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.
For many elements with atomic number Z small enough to occupy only the first three nuclear shells, that is up to that of calcium (Z = 20), there exists a stable isotope with N/Z ratio of one. The exceptions are beryllium ( N / Z = 1.25) and every element with odd atomic number between 9 and 19 inclusive (though in those cases N = Z + 1 always ...
A table or chart of nuclides is a two-dimensional graph of isotopes of the elements, in which one axis represents the number of neutrons (symbol N) and the other represents the number of protons (atomic number, symbol Z) in the atomic nucleus. Each point plotted on the graph thus represents a nuclide of a known or hypothetical chemical element.