Nuclear Theory

Atomic physics is the science of atoms, their structure and their behavior. To discuss the properties of atoms we need to know about the number of electrons and their configuration (see Chapter 2). In this context the information related to the atomic nucleus is not of great interest except to know that a neutral atom caries Zprotons and A – Z neutrons (where Z represents the atomic number and A the atomic mass number). The electrons arrangement is described in the previous chapter.

The dazzling complexity of the material world can, for almost all purposes, be reduced to a simple trinity: the proton, the electron, and the neutron. The neutron, a component of the nucleus of every atom except that of hydrogen, was the last of the trinity to be discovered, in 1932. Had they all been a little younger, the scientist who uncovered the neutron might have met on the battlefields of World War II. Brian L. Silver, (“The Ascent of Science”, 1998)