Page 235 - A Life - my Live - my path

Appendix

This is an extraordinary field. It quickly goes beyond any
comprehension. Indeed, many concepts cannot be
represented by our vision of a 3-dimensional world on a
human scale.

Today, we know that the atom is made up of a nucleus and
electrons that gravitate around it. We also know that the
nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons.
But that's about as far as most of us know.

There's another particle called a "neutrino", 100 times
smaller than the - electrically neutral - neutron, which
comes along with the creation of an electron or positron
when, in the nucleus, a proton transforms into a neutron or

a neutron transforms into a proton. This transformation
does not change the number of nucleons.
To compensate for the change in charge, an electron or
positron is expelled from the nucleus. The expulsion of the
electron is accompanied by a kind of neutral positron called
an antineutrino, while that of the positron is accompanied
by a neutral electron, a neutrino.

For experts, the proton and neutron are not considered
elementary particles, but composite particles.

The proton is made up of 3 quarks linked by gluons (2 up
quarks and 1 down quark).

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