On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 2:36 PM, John Ross <[email protected]> wrote:
>Neutrons have a lifetime of about 15 minutes Yes, but only when they are independent and not attached to a proton or other neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom. > after which they turn into an electron and a proton Yes it's due to the weak nuclear force, and under some conditions (such as inside a large unstable nucleus) the reverse can happen, a proton can emit a anti-electron and turn into a neutron. It's called Beta decay and Beta radiation is just high speed electrons (or sometimes anti-electrons). > >Some people (maybe a lot of people) believe neutrons live forever inside > atomic nuclei. > It depends on the particular atomic nuclei you're talking about. Nobody has found even a scrap of experimental evidence that the 2 neutrons inside a Helium 4 nucleus will not live forever, but the evidence is overwhelming that the 52 neutrons inside a nucleus of Strontium 90 are far from eternal, and the probability is 50% that in 29 years one of those neutrons will have undergone Beta decay. > Under the Ross Model, neutrons have the same lifetime whether they are > inside or outside nuclei. > Then the Ross Model clearly conflicts with observation, thus if you follow the scientific method you must abandon your theory regardless of how painful that may be to you. There is no disgrace in having a theory that is wrong, all the great scientists have been wrong about something at one time or another in their career; the disgrace is holding fast to a theory long after it has been found to conflict with experiment. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
