

The Man Who Was Hit By A Proton Beam - gmaster1440
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski

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juiceandjuice
This title is very misleading. A proton beam is high flux, and protons aren't
atoms.

~~~
jarin
Isn't a proton the hydrogen ion H+?

~~~
juiceandjuice
Technically, yes. But for convention, no.

Your question also applies to alpha particles. From:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle>

Some science authors may use doubly-ionized helium nuclei (He2+) and alpha
particles as interchangeable terms. Thus, alpha particles may be loosely used
as a term when referring to stellar helium nuclei reactions (for example the
alpha processes), and even when they occur as components of cosmic rays.
However, helium nuclei produced by particle accelerators (cyclotrons,
synchrotrons, and the like) are less likely to be referred to as "alpha
particles" because the high energies produced by these sources highlights the
striking difference in behavior of their particles from the classical alpha
particles produced (and originally defined by) the process of radioactive
alpha decay.

The same goes for a proton beam.

~~~
harshpotatoes
The parent is correct, but to throw another shoe in the gears, there are other
situations in which a proton is referred to as a hydrogen ion. For example,
during reionization in cosmology, hydrogen becomes ionized. The H+ ion is then
referred to as hydrogen. Sometimes in chemistry when dealing with acids, H+ is
referred to as hydrogen and not a proton, but I've also heard it the other
way.

I think a good guess, is that if you're dealing with nuclear physics, call it
a proton, anything else call it whatever you want.

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ck2
As previously seen ;-)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1779280>

Be sure to check out the parent article, which was inspired by this HN post:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1725592>

