• Question: What is a neutron?

    Asked by to Simon on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Simon Albright

      Simon Albright answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      A neutron is one of the three particles that make up an atom. The other two are protons and electrons. You’ll have to forgive me if I over/under simplify, I haven’t been in year 9 for more than 10 years (and now I feel old!) so I can’t remember what you know.

      In the middle of an atom is the nucleus made up of protons and neutrons. Orbiting around the outside is the electrons. But if we go onto a smaller scale we see that protons and neutrons are also made up of yet smaller particles called Quarks. In protons and neutrons we have Up and Down quarks but in different numbers. A proton has 2 up and 1 down quark, a neutron has 2 down quarks and 1 up quark.

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