# When I was in high school, nuclear physics was easy **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593 "2017-09-05T21:23:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/1 "2017-09-05T21:23:52Z")
(This was back in the early sixties, and I fully realize that actual physicists had a completely different concept of the situation.) You had your protons, you had your neutrons, and you had your electrons. Your physics teacher never indicated that there was anything below that level. All atoms were made up of different numbers of those three things. And smart guys like me figured out that a neutron was really just a combined proton and electron. (We never brought it up because, well, wait until it was on a test.) Atomic bombs? Simple. Too many protons in a nucleus made an atom unstable. Just tap that unstable atom with something and boom! Make enough of those unstable atoms go boom and BIG BOOM! Where did we go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/2 "2017-09-05T21:27:41Z")
Go wrong? I don’t understand the question. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/3 "2017-09-05T21:31:01Z")
Was it atom smashers that revealed the subatomic zoo? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/4 "2017-09-05T22:01:34Z")
You are simply reading the wrong textbooks. You need to get your hands on [this](https://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,11249.msg255572.html?PHPSESSID=bd05a0eabc6444386775fe7ca7ffcc38#msg255572) [one](https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Right-Vol-1/dp/1602477663). ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/5 "2017-09-05T22:12:13Z")
When I was a kid, back in the early 1860s, atoms were singular and indivisible now a days you have all these sub atomic particles…when did physics go so wrong? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/6 "2017-09-05T22:16:53Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > Where did we go wrong? Here, for starters: > [@](#): > > And smart guys like me figured out that a neutron was really just a combined proton and electron. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/7 "2017-09-05T23:56:28Z")
When I was in high school (1950s), I read Scientific American magazine and thought I actually understood quite a bit of it. Now I can’t understand the manual that comes with my landline phone. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/8 "2017-09-06T02:02:21Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > Where did we go wrong? From Friends [QUOTE=Phoebe Buffay] Wasn’t there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. [/Quote] ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/9 "2017-09-06T02:54:09Z")
Friends was set in or around 1900? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/10 "2017-09-06T09:04:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Here, for starters: Meh. I have a degree in physics and I think that is an easy mistake to make. After all, the decay products of a neutron include a proton and an electron. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/11 "2017-09-06T12:36:42Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > After all, the decay products of a neutron include a proton and an electron. I knew it! I knew it! A neutron is just a proton and an electron … and some gluey stuff to hold it together. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/12 "2017-09-06T16:27:15Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > I knew it! I knew it! A neutron is just a proton and an electron … and some gluey stuff to hold it together. Yah, no. How’s that working out for you by the way? Being clever? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-i-was-in-high-school-nuclear-physics-was-easy/795593/13 "2017-09-06T18:44:49Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Friends was set in or around 1900? Phoebe might be.