what is the smallest component of matter that man knows?

Question

if that component can be broken down to something smaller and that component broken down to something smaller and so on, and so on, where will it end. If it stops at notingness, than how can we exist.

Answer 1

at the present time, two groups of particles are thought to be elementary, the fermions (six quarks and six leptons) and the bosons (four bosons). there may be two more undiscovered bosons, but that is hypothetical.

quarks: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm

leptons: electron, electron-type neutrino, muon, muon-type neutrino, tau, and tau-type neutrino

bosons: gluons, W boson, Z boson, and photon

look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle

Answer 2

The "smallest" component of "matter" right now would probably be Quarks and Gluons. They are the material that existed moments after the big bang, and are what everything else is composed of.

However, since we are having quite a bit of difficulty locating the Higgs Boson (which gives atoms their 'mass') after colliding particles together, I would still say that the basic proton/neutron is the smallest piece of Matter, in the sense that it is the most stable thing we have that has a mass.

Answer 3

The smallest components of matter (elementary particles), the so called quarks and leptons.

There are six quarks in our world, called d, u, s, c, b, t quark.
And there are six leptons in our world, too, called e, mu, tau, e neutrino, mu neutrino, tau neutrino.
The normal world around us just contains three of all of these, the u and d quark and the electron (e).
The particles responsible for the force, the "interaction" of the matter particles. These are
the photon (responsible for the light, the electromagnetic force)
the W and the Z particle (responsible for radioactive decay)
the gluon (responsible for holding the u and d quarks together in the protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nucleus)

Answer 4

The question doesn't make sense once you get small enough, because what looked like matter starts to look more and more like energy that's all connected by patterns that are constantly moving.

So it's kind of like asking: is Pluto a planet? 'tall depends on how you define matter. What's a water wave MADE of? The up-and-down MOTION of water. The wave is not "made" of anything but motion.

How can we exist? Now there's the wonderful mystery. Good thing we don't need to know the answer first!

And yet, we think, we do. But what's the *reality* underneath the appearance? Got a few years?

Answer 5

The smallest component that still has the properties of matter. Carbon, Oxygen, Iron etc is the atom.
Atoms are made of Protons, Nuetrons, & electorns.
Protons and neutrons are made of Quarks. The electron is a quark.
The latest theory (string or M theory) says quarks are made of vibrating strings of energy.

Strings are the smallest things that may exist. But it is only a theory at this point. They have seen quarks

Answer 6

the atom...thats the smallest component of matter that man knows and it can't be broken down anymore

Answer 7

Quarks, the smallest of the quarks is a neutrino.

www2.slac.stanford.edu/VVC/theory/quarks.html

Answer 8

The smallest matter is a "molecule".That canot will be broken anymore.

Answer 9

There are some dumb people on Yahoo answers..

A Molecule? Wow did you sleep through every science class you have ever taken?