A Brief History of Time

by

Stephen Hawking

A positively charged particle in the nucleus of an atom.

Proton Quotes in A Brief History of Time

The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Proton or refer to Proton. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

We now know that neither the atoms nor the protons and neutrons within them are indivisible. So the question is: what are the truly elementary particles, the basic building blocks from which everything is made?

Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
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Proton Term Timeline in A Brief History of Time

The timeline below shows where the term Proton appears in A Brief History of Time. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...has no charge) made up the nucleus of an atom along with the previously discovered proton, and later won the Nobel Prize for his discovery. (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...in three “colors”: red, green, and blue. These names are just labels. Quarks form the proton, electron, and neutron. Scientists can create other particles from quarks, but these are unstable. (full context)
The Search for a Unifying Theory of the Universe Theme Icon
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...size of the universe. But scientists can test low-energy outcomes of the theory. For example, protons could spontaneously decay into smaller particles. But the probability of that is very low, and... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...beings came to be is possibly due to the reverse process—the production of quarks and protons. If there were regions of anti-matter (made of anti-particles), there would be a lot of... (full context)
Chapter 6
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...rather than collapsing. Landau also showed that stars supported by the exclusion principle acting between protons and neutrons would become neutron stars, which are much smaller and denser than white dwarves. (full context)
Chapter 8
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...have been made up of photons, electrons, and neutrinos, along with their anti-particles, and some protons and neutrons. As the universe cooled, electron and anti-electron pairs would annihilate each other at... (full context)
Human Curiosity and Ingenuity Theme Icon
...hundred seconds after the big bang, the universe’s temperature would be 1 billion degrees, meaning protons and neutrons could not escape the strong nuclear force and began to form into the... (full context)