Free Neutron Decay and the Bouncing Electron

A neutron, separated from an atomic nucleus, will decay into a proton, an electron and an anti-neutrino within 15 minutes.

The reason for this is not entirely clear. However, whatever the reason is, it is interesting to note that the electron manages to escape the proton.

This indicates that a proton is not able to hold onto an electron residing on its surface.

A stray electron that happens to bump into a lone proton will not stick onto it, but bounce.

We know this to be true, because a proton cannot be made into a neutron by smashing an electron into it. Once a free neutron has decayed into a proton and an electron, it cannot be put back together again.

If the stray electron mentioned above lacks the energy to escape the electric field of the lone proton, it will fall back onto the proton. It will bounce again. Still not able to escape the proton, there will be another bounce, and this will continue for ever as long as no energy is added to the electron.

Since we can assume things to be perfectly elastic at the subatomic, the bounce will be completely free of friction or any other type of energy loss. The bounce will also synchronize with the harmonic frequency of the proton.

We get an electron furiously bouncing off of the proton, precisely as described in my book on physics.

The fact that the free neutron is unable to hang onto the electron that it emits can be taken as supporting evidence for the bouncing electron model of the atom.