knockout of pions from nucleons is discussed. In the region where the pole approximation is applicable, the
cross section for the exclusive electroproduction of a pion on a nucleon can be represented in a form that
involves the momentum distribution of pions in the channel p
n + 
+ (quasielastic knockout). This distri-bution is extracted from experimental data and is consistent with the wave function of a bound pion in the
nucleon as given by the potential of
N scattering. The spectroscopic factor 
( p) (this is the normalization of the momentum distribution, the number of mesons in a given channel) is estimated. A wide set of accessible,
albeit as-yet-unexplored, fundamental features of the nucleon, such as the momentum distributions and spec-
troscopic factors in various channels (p
B + , 
+ K, etc.), can extend our knowledge about the structure of the nucleon, thereby furnishing information necessary for further development of nonperturbative QCD.