
The Neutron
In Our Time: Science
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The Origins of Neutrons and Protons
The neutron is made of two down quarks, and an up quark. This was originally the concept of somebody called Murray-Gill-Mec who were trying to put all the particles that were known about in some order. So it was discovered exactly the same as Rutherford discovered the nucleus. And with that higher energy meant you could probe deeper inside the nucleus and inside the neutrons and protons. It was discovered that there are fractional charges inside the neutron and proton. These are the quarks.
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