How does a eletron neutralize a proton that’s is +1.800x bigger?

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How does a eletron neutralize a proton that’s is +1.800x bigger?

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It doesn’t neutralize it in the sense of destroy it, like in a bad mafia movie. Neutral just means that the total of something is not one way or the other, but in the middle. While a proton has a much larger mass than an electron, their charges are equal (and opposite). So when you put a proton and electron near each other, the total effective charge is zero, or neutral.

There is another thing that can happen when a proton and electron get close enough together with enough energy: they can “merge” to form a neutron, a neutral particle roughly the same mass as the proton plus electron. In that case the proton isn’t being destroyed either, just changed a bit.

The question of *why* protons and electrons have the exact same charge is is lot deeper. Why should two completely different things happen to have exactly the same charge? The answer comes from some of the more obscure theories of physics like the grand unified theory (which doesn’t exist yet).

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