In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message of Tue, 10 May 2011 22:39:21 -0400: Hi, [snip] >Well, if it were that easy to make neutrons, we'd be making them all >the time. What happens when a slow proton meets a slow electron, >assuming they are free, is that a hydrogen atom is formed, not a >neutron. The electron cannot reach the nucleus (a proton in this >case), it stays at a distance, and the "ground state" is the minimum >Bohr "orbit." It takes energy -- a lot of energy, apparently, -- to >bring an electron and a proton into close proximity. > ...it's not just a matter of bringing them together. They do that themselves millions of times a second in ordinary Hydrogen atoms. The problem is that even when they are together, they are still about 0.8 MeV short of enough energy to form a neutron.
Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
