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Electrons orbit protons and neutrons because they are a much lighter particle (a proton weighs more than 2000 times as much as an electron) and because the negatively charged electron is attracted to the positively charged proton, and the attraction holds it on orbit (much as the gravitational attraction of the sun holds the planets in orbit). This arrangement works even without neutrons (as in a hydrogen atom) but the neutrons help to hold a nucleus together when there is more than one proton (and all protons electrostatically repel other protons).

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