Talk:Atomic nucleus

This page, like many of our science pages, suffers from the terrible flaw of being peppered with much scientific jargon that is not adequately explained. For example, observe the following paragraphs:

A heavy nucleus can contain hundreds of nucleons (neutrons and protons), which means that to some approximation it can be treated as a classical system, rather than a quantum-mechanical one. In the resulting liquid-drop model, the nucleus has an energy which arises partly from surface tension and partly from electrical repulsion of the protons. The liquid-drop model is able to reproduce many features of nuclei, including the general trend of binding energy with respect to mass number, as well as the phenomenon of nuclear fission.

Here, the editors do not make clear what a classical system is and what a quantum-mechanical one is. This would be bad enough, but the editors then go on to build off that confusing dichotomy, referring to the "resulting liquid-drop model." Since the reader has no idea what a classical or quantum-mechanical system is, the reader cannot even begin to grasp what a liquid-drop model might be, if the other had even bothered to explain what the fucking model was, or how it resulted from the ability to approximate a q/m system as a classical one.

Superimposed on this classical picture, however, are quantum-mechanical effects, which can be described using the nuclear shell model, developed in large part by Maria Goeppert-Mayer. Nuclei with certain numbers of neutrons and protons (the magic numbers 2, 8, 20, 50, 82, 126, ...) are particularly stable, because their shells are filled.

Here, the editors might have redeemed themselves by explaining something about quantum-mechanical effects. They at least mention a nuclear shell model, but then, infuriatingly, leave it at that. They do, however, go on to explain what this nuclear shell model implies, now leaving us totally in the dark, and chewing on ourselves in frustration.

Since some nuclei are more stable than others, it follows that energy can be released by nuclear reactions.

Finally, the editors continually make deductions that are not obvious to the reader, and don't bother to explain how they, or any physicist, arrived at them.

This is not a problem merely with this article: it exists in many others. Our articles are only useful as encyclopedia articles if they are penetrable to the layman.

As a conclusion to this general rant, could someone knowledgable about the physics of atomic nuclei clarify these points? Graft

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I don't see a problem with using jargon. In fact, the jargon is an aid to understanding because the meanings are very precise. However, when jargon is used, there need to be links to articles explaining the concepts. I've added a bunch of links to this article, so it should be easier for a reader without any education in science to follow.

To use the existing example, if one doesn't know what surface tension is, then the liquid-drop model may not be obvious. Hence, a link to surface tension was needed.