Neutrons and protons have 'size', i.e. Seem to occupy physical space, because they are quarks held together by the strong force, and so their 'size' is simply the range at which the strong force interactions between the quarks dominate. So, the smallest subatomic particle doesn't exist, as subatomic particles don't really have a size. Quarks are the smallest entities we have come across in our scientific endeavor through the sand grain. Actually, quarks as well as electrons. When physicists first collided electrons with protons, they observed that electrons bounced off three small hard cores inside the proton.
Are Electrons The Smallest Subatomic Particle
- The smallest particle that I am aware of is the quark. The quark is the basic building block of hadrons. There are two types of hadrons: baryons (three quarks) and mesons (one quark, one antiquark). Protons and the neutrons are stable baryons. There are also leptons, a family of elementary particles that include electrons, muons, tauons, and neutrinos. Neutrinos were originally believed to have zero mass, but they have been found to have a very tiny mass, smaller than any subatomic particle. Calling someone a 'hadron head' would be considered an insult among physicists.No comments
- AlateaUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa physicists recently reported the discovery of a new and unusual elementary particle. This particle, which they have dubbed the X(3872), weighs about the same as a single atom of helium and exists for only about one billionth of a trillionth of a second before it decays to other longer-lived more familiar particles. Although extremely short-lived by human standards, this is nearly an eternity for an elementary particle of this kind. The new particle was discovered by UH Manoa Professor of Physics and Astronomy Stephen Olsen and Gyeongsang University (Korea) Professor Sookyung Choi among the decay products of the so-called beauty meson that is produced in large numbers at KEKB, a huge “atom smasher” at the High Energy Accelerator Research Laboratory in Tsukuba Science City, Japan. “The discovery is very exciting because there are some indications that the X(3872) may be the first example of a new type of sub-atomic particle, one where two more ordinary particles attach to each other similar to the way atoms stick together to form molecules,” said Olsen. “If so, this is the first glimpse of a whole new realm of sub-atomic physics, with many new particles to discover and understand.” Particles produced at KEKB are studied at the Belle Detector, a complex assortment of highly sensitive radiation detectors located inside of a very large super-conducting electromagnet. Faculty and students from UH Manoa regularly participate in an international consortium of researchers from 11 different countries that collaborated on the construction and operation of the Belle Detector. They also take turns helping to operate the equipment which runs continuously with only a short summer break for improvements. The device took nearly ten years to design and build and has been operating since 1999. Olsen and UH Manoa Professor of Physics and Astronomy Thomas Browder are leaders of the Belle team. “Like a giant telescope with unprecedented light gathering power that allows astronomers to peer further and further into the cosmos, the Belle Detector and the KEKB accelerator have enabled us to penetrate previously hidden aspects of nature at the smallest sub-atomic scales,” said Browder. “As is often the case when the full power of a new experimental instrument is harnessed, big surprises are found. The discovery of the X(3872) particle is a good example of this.” There are hundreds of elementary particles and the discovery of a new one is not unusual. However, the X(3872) particle is peculiar in that it does not easily fit into any known particle scheme. Olsen and Browder initially thought the new particle was a member of the charmonium family of particles, which are comprised of a charmed-quark and an anticharmed-quark held together by the 'color' force, the most powerful force in nature. Many different charmonium particles have been found and their properties reflect the many different ways that these charmed-quark anticharmed-quark combinations can be accomplished. However, theoretical expectations for all possible charmonium particles are very well formulated and the mass and other features of the X(3872) do not match well to any of them. http://www.hawaii.edu/cgi-bin/uhnews?20031202101040 Edit- jbitz34 - Read again, slowly.No comments
- Roger KovacinyWhat you probably have in mind is particles you can visualize, in which case a proton would be as good an answer as any. The electron, when acting as a particle, is the same size but 1837 times lighter; but the electron acts as a wave much of the time so it's harder to visualize. Many of the other subatomic particles, such as quarks and gluons, can hardly be visualized even by nuclear physicists, but as long as the equations balance, the concepts are useful. The proton is 1/100,000th the diameter of an atom, and the atom is unimaginably small. Think of it this way: You have 50 trillion cells in your body. Of the needed elements in each cell, cobalt is present one hundred millionth as often as other elements, and only as part of the huge Vitamin B-12 molecule. And yet there are 450,000 atoms of cobalt in the average cell! The human body is like an onion. Every time you think you get to the bottom layer, there's another layer to be investigated.No comments
- thinkinknightHere's a take on this from a philosophical perspective - This question leads to the following question - What is matter ultimately made up of? I mean, the smallest particle that's discovered so far is made up of some other smaller particles and that smaller particle is made up of something else and so on. If we keep dividing the matter what do we end up with - something everybody needs to think about.No comments
- enlightendukWell let me tell you what everything is made of... love. ;)No comments
- James BeattySo we're all on the same page here, 'size' doesn't really exist in the way we think of it on a quantum level. There is *no* experimentally verified radius for the electron or any of the quarks. As best we can tell, they are point particles, occupying no physical space. Neutrons and protons have 'size', i.e. seem to occupy physical space, because they are quarks held together by the strong force, and so their 'size' is simply the range at which the strong force interactions between the quarks dominate. So, the smallest subatomic particle doesn't exist, as subatomic particles don't really have a size.No comments
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