Ok, so I know atoms are composed of Neutrons and Protons with electrons floating around them. But what makes up the protons and neutrons? Charges? And if so, what makes up those charges?
Theoretically, does it just keep going down smaller smaller? IS there anything that isnt made up of something?
2006-11-02 11:01:23 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Protons and neutrons are made of three quarks each. Quarks have properties with names like up, down, color, flavor, truth, beauty and charm. They also carry a charge of +2/3 and -1/3 of a proton's charge, so two 2/3 quarks combined with one -1/3 make a proton, and one 2/3 with two -1/3s make a neutron.
That's one version, anyway. Physicists are now poking around at an even smaller level than quarks in the latest attempt to unify the four forces of nature and have come up with several types of string theory as possible explanations.
Strings are supposed to be one-dimensional things that vibrate in ten-dimensional space and are the fundamental components of everything. Physicists have hypothesized a smallest possible length - called the Planck length - and a smallest possible time - the Planck time, how long it takes light to travel the Planck length. If these things are real it means that space and time come in tiny chunks just like energy: there is no Planck length/2, for example.
Pretty strange concepts, however not as strange as assuming that things are infinitely sub-dividable. That leads to even worse paradoxes!
2006-11-02 11:25:47 · answer #1 · answered by hznfrst 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What Makes A Proton
2017-01-20 11:57:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, you could give a limited explanation by regarding protons and electrons from the quark level. On this level, the explanation of the difference in the electron/proton charge (and, for that matter, the neutron's non-charge) is that electrons and protons are constituted from different sets of quarks (i.e. quarks with different charges) I believe that the proton is constituted by 2 quarks with 2/3 charge units each, along with one quark that has -1/3 charge unit (2/3+2/3-1/3=1). The electron, I believe, consists of 3 -1/3-quarks (-1/3-1/3-1/3=-1) The neutron (2/3-1/3-1/3=0). 'positive' and 'negative' are nothing more than two arbitrary names given to describe a phenomena. The original naming convention was assigned by Ben Franklin when he was doing some sort of experiment. They just as easily could have been called 'up' and 'down' (which have since been given to quarks to denote certain characteristics).
2016-03-17 06:16:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
a proton is made of quarks.
2006-11-02 11:19:08 · answer #4 · answered by sharebear717 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋