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From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: What is a photon
Date: 29 Jun 2025 20:05:15 GMT
Organization: Stefan Ram
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William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
>But, of course, to turn a proton into a neutron an up quark must be 
>changed to a down quark, and  that involves the strong nuclear force, 
>which the electron does not have at all.

  This quark flavor change is actually a beta decay, a consequence of 
  the /weak force/.

>Hence the fact that this can only occur in a nucleus, where the strong 
>force is present.

  The mass of a proton is slightly less than that of a neutron, so a
  free proton cannot change into a neutron when no energy is supplied.