Facts about the nucleus
- a tinny part of the atom (thousand times smaller than the atom)
- positively charged (the amount of charge = charge of the electron cloud)
- it carries almost all the mass of the atom
- determines the nature of the atom (the element)
- does not change during chemical reactions
- studying the nucleus more difficult than studying the atom
- quantum mechanical effects are predominant
- unknown forces that hold the alike charges together
- strange radiation emerging from nucleus: alpha, beta
- must have an internal structure
- must contain other elementary particles
- a challenging problem for the XX century physics