Monday, March 05, 2007

Coming to nuclear density calculations!

Based upon the atomic radius of hydrogen (32 picometres) and the proportion of the volume of nucleus with respect to the total atomic volume (10**-13 approx), the nuclear density of hydrogen is 1/15 that of the core matter achieved after gravitational collapse, which means that the radius of the single proton is about 40% of the radius of the nucleus. But hold! we have to see what similar calculations on atoms of other elements have to say. It could be true that neutrons are smaller than thought to be.
Taking the case of Radon with atomic mass at 222a.m.u. and atomic radius at 140 picometres,
it can be seen that the nuclear density of Radon is about 2.5 times that of hydrogen. That means the protons and neutrons are more closely packed in the nuleus of Radon than in Hydrogen.
One has to do the exercise on sufficient number of samples to arrive at a reliable conclusion!

srini

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