Published: 1980
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Nucleon structure as seen in the context of deep inelastic scattering is discussed. The lectures begin with consideration of the quark-parton model. The model forms the basis of understanding lepton-nucleon inelastic scattering. As improved data in lepton-nucleon scattering at high energies became available, the quark-parton model failed to explain some crucial features of these data. At approximately the same time a candidate theory of strong interactions based on a SU(3) gauge theory of color was being discussed in the literature, and new ideas on the explanation of inelastic scattering data became popular. A new theory of strong interactions, now called quantum chromodynamics provides a new framework for understanding the data, with a much stronger theoretical foundation, and seems to explain well the features of the data. The lectures conclude with a look at some recent experiments which provide new data at very high energies. These lectures are concerned primarily with charged lepton inelastic scattering and to a lesser extent with neutrino results. Furthermore, due to time and space limitations, topics such as final state hadron studies, and multi-muon production are omitted here. The lectures concentrate on the more central issues: the quark-parton model and concepts of scaling, scale breaking and the ideas of quantum chromodynamics, the Q2 dependence of structure function, moments, and the important parameter R.