Question: what are neutrons

Andres Olivares del Campo answered on 11 Nov 2016:

Neutrons are neutral particles made of smaller particles called quarks, they are found in the core of an atom (at the nucleus) together with protons. They are called neutrons because they are neutral, meaning that they have no electrical charge.

If you also wanted to know what neutrinos are, neutrinos are very very veeery small particles, which are neutral (meaning that they do not interact with light) and fundamental (meaning that they can’t be split any further). They interact so weakly with us that billions of them pass through us every seconds and we do not feel anything!

The difference between the two is that neutrinos are fundamental and neutrons not! Also, neutrinos are much much smaller than neutrons. In fact, the ending -ino, means “small” in Italian, and this particle was discovered by an Italian scientist.