Question
Question: Who discovered protons and neutrons?...
Who discovered protons and neutrons?
Solution
let’s first discuss what protons and neutrons are a proton is a subatomic particle, symbol p or p+ , with a positive electric charge of +1e elementary charge and a mass slightly less than that of a neutron. And the neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol n or no , which has a neutral charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton.
Complete Step By Step Answer:
Protons:
The proton was discovered by Ernest Rutherford in the early 1900s . During this period, his research resulted in a nuclear reaction which led to the first splitting of the atom, where he discovered protons. He named his discovery protons based on the Greek word protos which means first.
Neutrons:
By 1920 , physicists knew that most of the mass of the atom was located in a nucleus at its center, and that this central core contained protons. In May 1932 James Chadwick announced that the core also contained a new uncharged particle, which he called the neutron. Chadwick was born in 1891 in Manchester, England.
Note:
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom; an atom is composed of a positively-charged nucleus, with a cloud of negatively-charged electrons surrounding it, bound together by electrostatic force. Almost all of the mass of an atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the electron cloud. Protons and neutrons are bound together to form a nucleus by the nuclear force.