Question

Experiments to measure the inner structures of the nucleus typically use electrons as incident projectiles. Why might electrons be more useful than ex particles for such experiments?

Answer 1

Answer :

In the Experiments to measure the inner structures of the nucleus - an incident high-energy electron transfers not only momentum to the target nucleon (as in elastic scattering as well) but also a large quantity of energy. The energy lost by the electron is transformed into additional particles (mostly mesons) produced in the scattering. Even though these extra particles were not detected in the early experiments, new information was gained by noting that the dependences of the scattering probability on energy transfer and on momentum transfer were strongly correlated. The observed correlation suggested that the electron had actually scattered from a very small, charged object (quark) within the proton.