- #1
Jim Beam
- 15
- 0
the way i understand quarks is that they have mass, yet no physical extensions of any kind. how is this possible?
jnorman said:another of the more intriguing aspects of the illusion we call reality. electrons and quarks, the fundamental building blocks of all matter, are point particles and have no volume. don't you find that profoundly amusing and stupefying at the same time?
Quarks are the fundamental building blocks of matter. They are subatomic particles that make up protons and neutrons, which in turn make up the nucleus of an atom. Quarks are never observed in isolation, and they have fractional electric charges.
There are six known types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. These quarks differ in their mass, electric charge, and other properties. Up and down quarks are the most common and make up the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus.
The mass of a quark is incredibly small, with the lightest being the up and down quarks, which have a mass of about 0.002 GeV/c² (gigaelectronvolts per speed of light squared). The heaviest quark, the top quark, has a mass of about 173 GeV/c². Quarks are much smaller than the protons and neutrons they make up, as their mass is mostly due to the energy of their interactions.
Quarks are never observed in isolation due to the strong force that binds them together. Instead, scientists study quarks by colliding particles at high energies, such as in particle accelerators. The energy from these collisions can create new particles containing quarks, which can then be detected and studied.
Understanding the mass and physical properties of quarks is crucial for understanding the fundamental nature of matter and the universe. Quarks are essential to our current understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics, and further research into their properties can help us better understand the laws of nature and the origins of the universe.