What is a neutron?
1 Answer
sub atomic particles.
Explanation:
actually neutrons are the sub atomic particles which were first discovered by J. Chadwick .
There are two more sub-atomic particles namely 'electrons', 'protons'. but they all three differ in many ways like neutron is heaviest among these three .
Neutrons carry no charge and therefore are neutral.
Have you ever heard about 'mass number' . if not then it is a whole number which is calculated by adding number of protons and number of neutrons .
Don't get confused between mass number and atomic mass of any atom , these both are different terms though there are numerically somewhat the same .
number of neutrons can't be determined very easily as we do in case of protons which is equal to its atomic number.
number of neutrons may even differ in the atoms of same element . such atoms are called 'isotopes' .
there are many isotopes of an element but many of them are unstable like oxygen has many isotopes which have different mass numbers.
Neurons also play an important role in making the atom stable . one of such factors which decides the stability of atom is neutron - proton ratio which differs with increase in mass of nucleus also the neutrons and protons are concentrated in a very small volume called nucleus of the atom.
neutrons and protons together are called 'nucleons'.
