Neutron

Find out what a Neutron is!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Physics
• Particle
• Neutron
• Quark
• Neutral
• Strong
• Nuclear
• Force
• Gluon

[Pooua]

"They are actually traveling close to the speed of light." What does that even mean? How would someone measure something like that, and what difference does it make? Particles have a probability of being anywhere! We can't tell exactly where they are and how fast they are going at the same time, anyway. The speed of light has nothing to do with it.

[cassiopeiaproject]

@Pooua Theoretical calculations show that quarks inside protons will give the proton different shapes depending on the speed of the quarks. Quarks traveling at near light speed will give the proton a peanut shape instead of a spherical shape. Recent scattering experiments confirm that the proton is indeed often in the peanut shape.

[uut0]

i got a question: i kno that a neutron decays in about 10-20 mins. but what does it decay to?

[cassiopeiaproject]

@uut0 A proton, an electron, and an antineutrino.

[kellystone84]

A neutron walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender sets the beer down and says, "For you, no charge!"

[J4ANification]

What is a quark again?

[AnLa061095]

So if a Nutron decays into a Proton an electron and an antinutrino. Then does a down quark have mass = 1 up quark, 1 electron and 1 antinutrino?

N = P + e + n

u + 2d = 2u + d + e + n

2d - d = 2u - u + e + n

d = u + e + n

[Pooua]

@Ender1337otron Yeah, well, we were talking about a sub-atomic particle (the neutron) to begin with (that is what this video clip is discussing), so, when I began talking about particles, that is the context you should have considered; sub-atomic particles. It just happens that quantum effects are not limited to sub-atomic particles.

[Pooua]

@Ender1337otron Atoms *do* disappear and reappear at random, even across a barrier for which they do not have the energy to cross. This is known as atomic quantum tunneling, which has been observed for hydrogen in niobium.

[Ender1337otron]

Also, I was mostly talking about the fact that it's an electron that you can't precisely know both the speed and direction at the same time. I took issue with you using the rather broad term particle. You can most certainly know the speed and direction of an atom or a baseball or almost anything besides an electron. Other than that I didn't have any problem with your thought. That's why I said "If by particle you mean electron then yeah."

[Ender1337otron]

@Pooua

Nope, that's why they refer to the atom as a "stable" arrangement. The electron disappears and reappears at random close to the nucleus. Atoms themselves don't do that.

[Pooua]

@Ender1337otron My understanding is that even macroscopic objects have a probability of appearing anywhere in the universe at any given moment, though the probability for major displacement of a macroscopic object is virtually zero. The odds of even an electron suddenly appearing on the other side of the universe aren't very high, but it would be permitted under quantum mechanics. I'm not sure, but this might be analogous to the wave nature of objects (even baseballs have a wavelength).

[Ender1337otron]

@Pooua

If by particle you mean electron then yeah. Particle is a relative term that can mean many things, a bit of dust can be called a particle for instance.

[MetalSpiral]

Neutron: Mammoth of the quantum world. B-)

[vincentpistelli]

@AurumenK up and down quarks are not called that because of their motion. There are also charm, strange, top, and bottom quarks which obviously aren't named after movements.