sky54264 Wrote:But then electrons(+) would have mass, would be in the nucleus, and protons(-) would have no mass.I'm not talking about renaming the particles. I'm talking about redesignating the charges.
Odd seeing something "pro" having no mass and is (-).
So protons would still be the things in the nucleus, but they have - charge (maybe they could be named "negatrons" or whatever to have a more negative-sounding name). Electrons would still be the things in the energy cloud levels with "no mass", but they have + charge.
When you think about it there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that, since they're both still opposite anyway. It just happens to be the way it is because the scientists who discovered charges in particles arbitrarily decide that the charge an electron carries should be called a "negative" charge. And it became a convention.
Anyway, this was just a random musing more than anything. I understand how it works and all, I just thought it might be a little more straightforward if it had happened to go down the "lose electrons = reduction" way. Of course, if it got changed now, it'd be suddenly incompatible with all past science, which would cause a great deal more confusion. It'd be like suddenly deciding to switch the names of Europe and Africa.