CCST 9051 What Are We Made

of – the Fundamental Nature of

Matter

Lecture 6:
Sub-Atomic Matter: Why Three?

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Old Three

Traditional Chinese View

of our world: Three
vertical sub-structures:
Heaven, Person and
Earth (Land).

Note that “earth” in the

left picture may not be
the “earth” element of
the Five-Elements
Theory.

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 Old Three in Taoism
Taoism (also spelled Daoism) is a religion and a
philosophy from ancient China that has
influenced folk and national belief. Taoism has
been connected to the philosopher Lao Tzu,
who around 500 B.C.E. wrote the main book of
Taoism, the Tao Te Ching or “The Way and Its
Power”. One of the main ideas of
Taoism is the belief in
balancing forces, or yin
and yang.

Another main idea of Taoism is above statement.

Three in ALL.

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Old Three

The Tripiṭaka (Sanskrit) or Tipiṭaka

(Pāli) meaning: "three baskets"), is
the formal term for the earliest
surviving canon of Buddhist scriptures.
The contents of the Tripitaka fall into
three general groupings.
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 New Three

Three Isotopes of Hydrogen

Three Isotopes of Carbon

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 “Structures” of Matter World
ALL Matters including Living Things Example：Water
(万物）
Molecules Made of H2O molecules
(分子）
Atoms One water molecule consists of
(原子） two hydrogen atoms and one
Sub-Atomic Matter oxygen atom.
(亚原子物质）
Proton, Neutron, Each H or O atom contains
and Electron proton(s), neutron(s) and
(质子、中子、 electron(s).
电子）

三生万物
All things are made of
three particles.
What are the inner structures of
proton, neutron and even
electron? 6
 Individual Atoms Are Seen!

A Cryo-EM map of the protein

apoferritin. Credit: Paul Emsley/MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology

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Three Sub-Atomic Particles
Atoms are not the smallest particles of matter.
Atoms are made up of even smaller, subatomic
particles called protons, neutrons and electrons.

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 Relative Masses and Charges
Relative masses and charges of three sub-atomic particles:

Protons and neutrons have the almost same mass, which is about 2,000 times
larger than the mass of an electron.

Protons and electrons have an electrical charge. This electrical charge is the same
size for both, but protons are positive and electrons are negative.

Neutrons have no electrical charge; they are neutral.

These properties are summarized in the table:

Summary of the relative mass and charge of particles
Particle Relative mass Relative charge
proton 1 +1
neutron 1 0
electron 0.0005 −1

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 Discovery of Proton
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region
consisting of protons and neutrons at the
center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest
Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden
gold foil experiment.
The word proton is Greek for "first", and this
name was given to the hydrogen nucleus by
Ernest Rutherford in 1920. Ernest Rutherford
After the discovery of the neutron in 1932, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908)
a New Zealand-born British

models for a nucleus composed of protons and physicist who came to be known
as the father of nuclear physics.

neutrons were quickly developed by Dmitri

Ivanenko and Werner Heisenberg.

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Rutherford Model of Atomic Nucleus

Top: Expected results: alpha particles passing

through the plum pudding model of the atom
undisturbed.

Bottom: Observed results: a small portion of

the particles were deflected, indicating a small,
concentrated charge.

Note that the image is not to scale; in reality

the nucleus is vastly smaller than the electron
shell.

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 A Model of Nucleus
The term nucleus is from the Latin word nucleus, a diminutive of nux ("nut"),
meaning the kernel (i.e., the "small nut") inside a watery type of fruit (like a peach).
In 1844, Michael Faraday used the term to refer to the "central point of an atom".
The modern atomic meaning was proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1912.

A model of the atomic nucleus showing it as a

compact bundle of the two types of nucleons:
protons (red) and neutrons (blue). In this
diagram, protons and neutrons look like little
balls stuck together, but an actual nucleus (as
understood by modern nuclear physics) cannot
be explained like this, but only by using
quantum mechanics. In a nucleus which
occupies a certain energy level (for example,
the ground state), each nucleon can be said to
occupy a range of locations.
Protons (red) and neutrons (blue)
bound together to form a nucleus.
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 Composition and Shape of Nucleus
Protons and neutrons are fermions.

The proton has an approximately exponentially decaying positive

charge distribution with a mean square radius of about 0.8 fm.

The neutron has a positively charged core of radius ≈ 0.3 fm

surrounded by a compensating negative charge of radius between
0.3 fm and 2 fm.

Nuclei can be spherical, rugby ball-shaped (prolate deformation),

discus-shaped (oblate deformation), triaxial (a combination of
oblate and prolate deformation) or pear-shaped.

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 Inner Structures of Proton
In the modern Standard Model of particle physics, protons are
composed of three quarks. Although protons were originally
considered fundamental or elementary particles, they are now
known to be composed of three valence quarks: two up quarks
and one down quark.

A proton 14
 Neutron
The free neutron has a mass of about 1.675×10−27 kg
(equivalent to 1.0087 u). The neutron has a mean square
radius of about 0.8×10−15 m, or 0.8 fm, and it is a spin-½
fermion.
A free neutron is unstable, decaying to a proton, electron
and antineutrino with a mean lifetime of just under 15
minutes (881.5 ± 1.5 s).

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 Discovery of Neutron
The story of the discovery of the neutron and its properties are
central to the extraordinary developments in atomic physics that
occurred in the first half of the 20th century, leading ultimately to
the atomic bomb in 1945.
Throughout the 1920s, physicists assumed that the atomic nucleus
was composed of protons and "nuclear electrons" but there were
obvious problems. It was difficult to reconcile the proton–electron
model for nuclei with the Heisenberg uncertainty relation of
quantum mechanics. Observed properties of atoms and molecules
were inconsistent with the nuclear spin expected from the proton–
electron hypothesis.

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 Discovery of Neutron
James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge
performed a series of experiments that showed that the new
radiation consisted of uncharged particles with about the same
mass as the proton. These particles were neutrons.
Chadwick won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in
1935.

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 Discovery of Neutron
By 1934, Fermi had bombarded heavier elements with neutrons to
induce radioactivity in elements of high atomic number.
In 1938, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassmann discovered
nuclear fission, or the fractionation of uranium nuclei into light
elements, induced by neutron bombardment. The discovery of
nuclear fission would lead to the development of nuclear power
and the atomic bomb by the end of World War II.

In July 1945, the first atomic bomb,

dubbed “Trinity”, was detonated in
the New Mexico desert, USA.
In August 1945, two more atomic
bombs – “Little Boy”, a uranium-235
bomb, and “Fat Man”, a plutonium
bomb – were used against the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
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 The Quarks of Neutron
A neutron consists of two down quarks with charge −⅓ e and
one up quark with charge +⅔ e.

The quark structure

of the neutron.
The color
assignment of
individual quarks is
arbitrary, but all
three colors must
be present.

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 Applications of Neutron and Proton
Applications of neutrons

Nuclear power: Because of the mass–

energy equivalence, nuclear fission may
release vast energy which makes nuclear
reactors or bombs possible.

In nuclear fission, the absorption of a

neutron by a heavy nuclide (e.g., uranium-
235) causes the nuclide to become
unstable and break into light nuclides and
additional neutrons. At the same time,
vast energy is released.

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Controlled and Uncontrolled Fission

Nuclear Nuclear
Power Bomb
Station 21
 Nuclear Power Plants

Typical Pressurized Water Nuclear Fission Reactor Power Plant

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 Top five nuclear electricity generation
countries, 2017
Nuclear share of
Nuclear electricity Nuclear electricity
country's total
Country generation capacity generation (billion
electricity
(million kilowatts) kilowatt hours)
generation
United States 99.6 805.0 19.8%
France 63.1 381.8 71.5%
China 34.5 232.8 3.7%
Russia 26.1 190.1 18.4%
South Korea 22.5 141.3 26.6%
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Statistics, as of
April 16, 2020

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 Applications of Neutrons
For research:

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Applications of Protons

Proton Exchange
Membrane Fuel
Cell is considered a
key device in the
hydrogen economy

Alin C. Fărcaşa and Petru Dobra

Procedia Technology 12, 42 (2014).

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 Proton Beam Therapy and CERN Hadron
Technology Are Fighting Cancer!

Clearly, proton therapy is a much

The World Health Organization names cancer
better method, but it’s only available
as the second leading cause of death globally,
in approximately 65 facilities
causing nearly one in six deaths. In case
worldwide. Traditional radiotherapy
anyone needs reminding, cancer is a big deal.
can damage surrounding tissues.
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 Discovery of the Electron
In 1897, J. J. Thomson used a cathode ray tube…

J.J. Thomson (British

physicist , 1856 – 1940)
The third Cavendish
Professor in 1884
(following Maxwell and
Lord Rayleigh).

J. J. Thomson called these particles "corpuscles", and suggested

that they might make up all of the matter in atoms.
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28
Mass of the Electron

1909 – Robert Millikan

determines the mass
of the electron.

The oil drop apparatus

Mass of the electron is

determined to be

9.109 x 10-31 kg

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Conclusions from the Study of the Electron

 Cathode rays have identical properties regardless

of the element used to produce them. All
elements must contain identically charged
electrons.

 Atoms are neutral, so there must be positive

particles in the atom to balance the negative
charge of the electrons.

 Electrons have so little mass that atoms must

contain other particles that account for most of
the mass.

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 Three!
Sub-atomic Particles

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32
Einstein’s Interpretation

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 Erwin Schrödinger’s Electron
Cloud Model

Hydrogen Atom
Dots represent probability of finding an electron (not actual electrons)
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Electricity: Electron Tri City

NASA Maps Electric

Currents around Mars
that are Fundamental to
Technological civilization

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 Art of Transistors: Three
“Off”

Field Effect Transistor (FET) – the basics

Source, drain
and gate.
“On”

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Transistor and Integrated Circuit

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 Moore’s Law
Describes the empirical regularity that the
number of transistors on a chip doubles
approximately every 18 months.

Gordon Moore

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 Electron Transition and Light
Electrons can transfer between different orbitals by the emission or absorption
of photons with an energy that matches the difference in potential energy.

Electron transitions and their

The four visible hydrogen emission spectral lines in resulting wavelengths for hydrogen.
the Balmer series. Energy levels are not to scale.

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 Summary

Three (protons, neutrons, & electrons) and

Three (3 quarks inside each proton and
neutron)

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Question: How bout light and photons?
 Do Electrons Think?

Erwin Video: (BBC 1949)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwR1zt
Schrödinger UXtU
Erwin Schrödinger (1887--1961) was an Austrian physicist
who developed a number of fundamental results in the field
of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave
mechanics: he formulated the wave equation (stationary and
time-dependent Schrödinger equation) and revealed the
identity of his development of the formalism and matrix
mechanics. Schrödinger proposed an original interpretation
of the physical meaning of the wave function and in
subsequent years repeatedly criticized the conventional
Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (using e.g.
the paradox of Schrödinger's cat).

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