Atomic Nucleus

Having built up a working picture of how electrons are arranged and behave around the nucleus, the chapter now turns to the nucleus itself. What is it actually made of? How large is it, and how does its size scale with the number of particles it contains? What force can possibly hold a cluster of positively charged protons together at such close range, given how strongly they repel one another electrostatically? And -- in the remaining sections of the chapter -- why are some nuclei stable indefinitely while others spontaneously decay, and how can useful energy be extracted from …