of the three subatomic particals, the electron is the smallest? true of false?

Answer 1

I assume you refer to electron, proton, and neutron.

Physicists do consider the electron (and proton and neutron) as having radius. The radius can depend on the circumstances. For example, the classical (pre-quantum mechanics) concepts and experiments led physicists to consider at least a working value for size of these particles.

ELECTRON (Classical physics)
Electron radius (from Wikipedia): The classical electron radius, also known as the Compton radius or the Thomson scattering length is based on a classical (i.e., non-quantum) relativistic model of the electron. Its value is calculated as
Re = 2.8 x 10^(-15) meters

So ELECTRON DIAMETER (better estimate of "size") is:
Electron Diameter = De = 5.6 x 10^(-15) meters

PROTON (Classical physics)
Also from Wikipedia
Proton Diameter = Dp = (1.6 to 1.7) × 10^(-15) meters

NEUTRON (Classical physics)
I cannot quickly find a value, but I know from my long-ago college courses that it is essentially the same classical diameter as the proton, within about 10%
Neutron Diameter = Dn = about 1.5 to 2.0 × 10^(-15) meters (my reasonable estimate)

RESULT: CLASSICAL ELECTRON IS LARGER THAN CLASSICAL ELECTRON
De = 5.6 x 10^(-15) m is greater than Dn upper limit Dn = 2.0 × 10^(-15) meters

QUANTUM MECHANICS
Each particle has wave properties, so there is no sharp edge. But physicists speak of the diameter that contains x% of the particle (say 95%). This is based on the quantum behavior of the particle (diffraction effects, for example).

Because subatomic particles of small mass have larger wavelengths (de Broglie wavelength is the term) than particles of higher mass, the electron has a greater wavelength than either proton or neutron, that is it "spreads out" to be bigger than the whole atom. In this sense its diameter is the the order of 10^(-10) meters. The proton/neutron wave diameter is at most about 10 times greater than the proton/neutron classical diameter, so about 10^(-14) meters.

So the electron remains the largest of these three subatomic particles even in quantum mechanics. I do not remember whether the neutron or proton is considered smallest. Probably has to do with their composition (3 quarks each), spin, charge difference.

Answer 2

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RE:
of the three subatomic particals, the electron is the smallest? true of false?

Answer 3

Good question.

To begin with, terms like "smallest" don't really mean the same thing in the world of subatomic particles. As far as we can tell with current experimental data, neutrinos have no size at all! Neither do electrons, or quarks, or any other "elementary particles". A nice picture of the different elementary particles which have been observed to date can be seen at URL:

http://ed.fnal.gov/talks/fermilab1994/web/standard_model.gif

Neutrinos are, however, much lighter than the quarks, or the charged leptons (such as the electron). In fact, it is not yet known whether their mass is exactly zero, or whether it is merely lower than we have been able to measure up to now.

Answer 4

False. Completely and utterly false.

For one thing, there are no "three subatomic particles", unless you are getting your "science fix" from badly written high school physics text books written in the 1950s (it was wrong then, but at least defensible, but to teach the same thing today is just horribly wrong).

And for another, elementary particles have no size. They are always point particles, at least until you go to string theory... and even then "size" does not mean the same thing as in the classical world.

Answer 5

The size of the proton ,neutrons and electron are very closely of similar size. The electron diameter has been calculated to be in the order of 3 femto.The other atomic elementary particles are about the same size, but are about 2000 times the density of the Electron.
The Electrom is made up of smaller particles. These particle sare the micromasses of Light. Hence every mass in the Universe is made up of micromasses of light.
So in response to the question the Electron is only smaller then the proton and neutron , in terms of its mass.

Answer 6

if you mean proton electron and neutron then yep it sure is

its something around 1/1800 the size... but thats not exact

Answer 7

true