Question

What are the characteristics of neutron?

Answer 1

• In 1932, James Chadwick bombarded beryllium with a stream of a-particles. He observed that penetrating radiations were produced that were not affected by electric and magnetic fields. These radiations consisted of neutral particles, which were called neutrons. The nuclear reaction can be shown as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Berryllium}}{{}_4{}^9\mathrm{Be}}+\underset{\mathrm{Helium}}{{}_2{}^4\mathrm{He}}\to \underset{\mathrm{Carbon}}{{}_6{}^{12}\mathrm{C}}+\underset{\mathrm{Neutron}}{{}_0{}^1\mathrm{n}}$

• A neutron is a subatomic particle that has a mass$1.675\times {10}^{-24}\mathrm{g}$. approximately 1 amu, or nearly equal to the mass of a proton or hydrogen atom, and carrying no electrical charge. The e/m value of a neutron is thus zero.