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The proton.

The proton is a particle of the nucleus (a nucleon) of charge +1. Neutrons are nucleons with no charge, are slightly more massive than a proton, and are part of every atomic nucleus except for the simplest, Hydrogen (there are exceptions, of course, in deuterium and tritium, but here we will keep to simple Hydrogen.)

Electrons are tiny by comparison, and are not a part of the nucleus. They "orbit" at some distance. They provide the -1 charge to balance the charge of a proton, but they have a very low mass, 1/1836 that of a proton.

Except for the atom Hydrogen, where the proton is practically all the mass of the atom, the proton is the charged particle which accounts for nearly half of the mass of any atom.

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14y ago

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