Potential energy of proton vs neutron

[quawa99]

Consider an atom having multiple protons and neutrons in its nucleus, which of the two nucleons will have higher magnitude of potential energy?

 

[dauto]

Are you talking about gravitational potential energy? Electric potential energy? Nuclear potential energy? All of them added together?

 

[UltrafastPED]

You can look up the "binding energy" for different isotopes of the same element, and see what each neutron contributes.

Then look up the binding energy for different elements with the same number of nucleons. This will provide some insight into the contribution of each proton.

You will almost certainly obtain different results as you work your way up and down the periodic table.

Please report back with your results!