the.com/atomic nuclei
99.9% of your mass, crammed into 0.0000000000001% of your volume.
means the dense positively-charged core of an atom, made of protons and neutrons bound by the strongest force in nature.
from rutherford fired alpha particles at gold foil in 1909 expecting them to pass straight through; some bounced back, revealing atoms are mostly empty space around a tiny dense core he named the nucleus.
scale shockif an atom were a stadium, the nucleus is a marble
the gluestrong nuclear force beats electric repulsion at short range
the payoffsplitting or fusing them releases obscene amounts of energy
count that mattersprotons decide the element, neutrons decide the isotope