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Should nuclear particles stay together?
Should nuclear particles stay together?
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Now imagine that in the simulator below, a real nucleus is represented. The positive particles are protons and the neutral particles are neutrons. Press the Run button and observe what occurs for at least 10 seconds.
Hopefully you noticed that the nucleus stayed intact. The particles did not move away from each other. This is what occurs in real nuclei even though logic tells us that the protons should repel one another and separate. What then, is it, that holds the nucleus together? This course will not cover that answer in detail. For now, we will simply say that neutrons and protons are not the only subatomic particles in the nucleus. Many others have been discovered. They include bosons, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. The mesons, in particular, are particles exchanged between proton and proton, proton and neutron, and neutron and neutron which hold the nucleus together. The force which keeps the protons and neutrons together is known as the strong force.
References:
http://pdg.lbl.gov/2005/listings/contents_listings.html
http://aether.lbl.gov/www/tour/elements/stellar/strong/strong.html
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Which of the following best describes what you observed?
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The protons separated from each other.
The protons separated from the neutrons.
The neutrons separated from each other.
The particles vibrated in place.
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