• Question: if everything is made out of atoms what are atoms made up of and what are the things that atoms are made up of, made up of, and how far can we go down the line?

    Asked by charliebam to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      In sequence:

      Atoms are made up of, Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons. Each have different properties, protons and neutrons are in the family of Baryons while an electron is a Lepton.

      The electron is a fundamental particle and, as of now, we don’t think we can break electrons apart.

      Protons and Nuetrons however are made up of quarks, in this case Up and Down quarks though there are 4 other types (Charm and Strange, and Top (Truth) and Bottom (Beauty). These give protons and neutrons their characteristic charge, spin, and mass.

      Proton is two Up quarks and one Down.
      Neutron is two Down quarks and one Up.

      As far as we know there is nothing below quarks, however there is a another set of “particles” called Gauge Bosons that act as exchange particles for forces.

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Atoms have nuclei, which are made up of protons and neutrons (except for H-1, which is just a single proton), surrounded by a cloud of electrons.

      Electrons, as far as we know, are genuinely elementary. We have been trying to break electrons into something smaller for a century, and have not succeeded.

      Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks: two up quakrs and one down quark for a proton, two down and one up for a neutron.

      Quarks are like electrons: fundamental to the limit we have been able to test.

      It is *possible* that quarks and electrons have constituents, but if they do, this is not apparent at the highest energies we have been able to reach.

Comments